William Fraser's Second Year
by Jongluer
Summary: William Fraser comes to grips with the realities of the Wizarding World as he goes through seventh grade.  Disclaimer: I am not making any money from this/Harry Potter is not owned by me.
1. Moonlit Night

On a narrow street in a small Massachusetts town, light from the full moon rained down through the leaves of the trees mixing together with the stifled light from the lamp posts that lined one side of the street. Three young boys ran down the street, laughing and joking as they danced through the lights along the tightly packed road.

As they moved through the narrow road they grew silent because of the late hour, none of the boys wanted to get caught for being out so late. Even in the heat of the summer these young twelve year old boys had curfews, just like their old friend at the end of the street. Their friend had been away at a private school for the past year and they had only seen him a few times this summer. The trio of boys crept up slowly on the cramped house at the end of the narrow road.

The house was small, seemingly crammed onto the lot at the end of the street, made to appear even smaller with the two massive trees that loomed over the second floor windows that popped out of the roof. The light blue paint had begun to peel after seeing many harsh New England seasons without much in the way of care. There was not a single light on in the house at this hour, but this did not deter the three young boys.

Slowly they hopped up over the top of the old wooden fence that lined the yard, each falling with a near inaudible 'plop' with a tight exertion of air as they landed. The three boys neatly crept, each step a measured effort, to a small garden where they gathered up some small rocks, each taking a few in hand as they went past it with barely a sound.

Wind roared down the street, creating a wicked howling noise as the boys came beneath the second window from the left. One of the boys stepped forward, tossing the rock up and out of his palm, getting a feel for its weight before pausing to take aim. With a perfect practiced toss the rock flew expertly from his hand and hit the window pane with a sharp knock. After a brief pause, the boys flung up a few rocks in quick succession causing a staccato rapping across the window. They waited, backing up and gazing to the window where they expected their friend to appear.

After a few more moments instead of their friend's voice through the window they heard a deep and powerful baying. It sounded like the howling wind from just a few moments before. Each of the boys froze as they heard that strong howl once more, slowly realizing that the air was dead and muggy, there had not been any breeze. There was a deep growl that emanated up from their friend's old room, as if from a dog bigger than any they had ever imagined. Millennia of evolution dictated the next action of the trio when they saw the massive hairy creature that rammed into the window. The window did not buckle as the beast clawed and howled like mad, its muddy brown eyes locked down on the three children that were beneath its prison.

As one the trio of boys turned and ran screaming, they truly had no idea what they had seen all they knew is that they didn't want to find out if it could follow. They leaped over the short back chain link fence in one fluid motion, running through the moonlit alleyways of the small Massachusetts town being chased by the eerie howl from the second floor of the cramped blue house.

The three boys ran directly into a stiff wall of air as they were about to turn onto a main street. They fell down on to their bottoms and slowly backed away from the hard air before them. Suddenly where there once was nothing there was suddenly a middle aged man holding a long and oddly shimmering piece of cloth. The man wore a set of neatly cut robes in a deep shade of navy blue with a tight cap that looked at least a century out of date. On his left breast was a shining symbol of a crescent moon and a wolf howling up at it. The man lifted a small stick and calmly said, "_Obliviate_."

Suddenly the three boys stopped trembling in fear and slowly got up and dusted themselves off. The middle aged man disappeared beneath his cloak and stepped aside as the three boys walked away talking about how their friend must have been dead asleep for them not to be able to wake him. They turned onto a main avenue as if nothing had happened, for to them, nothing had happened.

The next morning, as a thin and somewhat tall twelve year old boy clambered down into the kitchen scratching fresh scars came to the breakfast table as if he were hungover, a middle aged woman with graying brown hair turned to him as she set his plate down, "Your friends tried to visit you last night..." She said quietly.

The boy merely nodded as he stared down into his waffles, "I know Mom, I know." Nicholas Hawthorne slowly picked up a knife and fork and began to eat his breakfast, though as he had slowly gotten used to after the full moon, chewing always felt somewhat weird the next day.


	2. The Summer Stretch

Mid morning on a hot summer's day found a bell ringing across a small town in Connecticut. The sound rang out from the top of a bell tower on a small college campus, and traveled over the many brick buildings and green fields that composed the campus proper. The ringing floated out through the newly paved streets of the town, gliding without a care over the deep dark black of the pavement. The ringing rolled out through the tree lined avenue of Inverness Lane to a well kept house wedged between the home of one of the college's fraternities and a quaint little cottage.

In this house there lived a young wizard. He was at that moment immensely enjoying the fact that he was on summer vacation from school as he rolled over in his bed to stare at the clock on his bedside table to see it read ten o'clock. The young twelve year old boy stretched a little as he debated actually clambering out of bed. He pulled himself up into a sitting position as he looked across the room.

He glanced around the room taking in everything like he did everyday. On the back of his door there sat a mirror that he glanced into, appraising his still small frame and increasingly thick mop of sandy hair. Hanging on the door knob was a smooth, and well polished leather wand holster that his parents had gotten him for his birthday. However his wand lay next to his bed with his glasses just in case he needed it in the middle of the night. Across from his bed was his desk where a computer sat, recently dusted as he had in the midst of the long summer vacation begun to use it to attempt to get a better understanding on the non-magical world he had been separated from for several months.

Next to the computer there sat several thick volumes, his old textbooks from last year that he had started to peruse just to remind himself that the past year had not been a dream. His hand came to rest on his thigh where a dark spell had hit him at the end of the year, he shook his head slightly reminding himself that it definitely had not been a dream. Draped over the back of his desk chair was his school scarf that he had never really put away despite the definite warmth of the summer months. Hanging above the desk was a small board to which he had attached several pictures that he had somehow managed to collect over the course of the year. He smiled as he did every morning as the magical pictures of his friends at school waved and smiled back at him. Next to his desk was his owl, Asimov, the large gray bird casually sleeping the day away.

Finally he turned to his closet where his cauldron sat with his quodpot horn poking up from it. Above it hung his school robes and a few sets of muggle clothing that his parents had bought for him at the end of the school year. He shook his head as he thought about how embarrassing that shopping trip had been but the young wizard had to admit that though he hadn't grown much over the year, he had grown enough that most of his old muggle clothing no longer fit.

As the young boy leaned back in his bed debating on whether or not to get up there was a loud knocking at the door, "Are you up yet squirt?" Called a voice from the other side.

The young boy groaned slightly, it was his older sister, "Yes," He called back through the door.

"Good," His sister called back.

"Why?" The young boy asked as he slowly clambered up out of bed.

There was a groan from the other side of the door, clearly his sister had thought the conversation was over. "Because Mom said I couldn't leave unless you were awake," She called back from the other side of the door, "Bye!" He heard her turn and then after a few moments the front door open and slam shut.

The young boy opened up his door and walked downstairs to make sure that his sister had locked the door when she had left. This year his sister would be a sophomore at the local high school, and she had gotten a job at some fast food restaurant at the start of the summer and the wizard had quickly learned that the job made his sister a little crazier than usual. Slowly he made his way into the kitchen to paw through the mail from the previous day, but still nothing with his name on it: William Fraser.

William was unsure when his new school letter would be coming with his list of new school supplies or the like but it was starting to kill him waiting for it. It was now July and he felt very cut off from the rest of the wizarding world. He had been exchanging letters with his friends from school but most of them were busy with family vacations now and he was completely out of contact. It was starting to make him feel like he was going crazy, like the whole wizarding world had just been some sort of vivid dream.

It didn't help that he had never had many friends in his hometown to begin with. The only friend that he had close by was Megan O'Rourke, and she was now busy with the few people she had met after she had started middle school. William had met them all once and had felt extremely uncomfortable, they all had been talking about school subjects, and when they weren't talking about history or math they had been talking about people at the school that William didn't know either. While he did miss the person who had once been his best friend, he was not sure if he wanted to put himself through the awkwardness of hanging around a bunch of people who he had nothing in common with to see her.

William sighed slumping down into a chair at the kitchen table twiddling his thumbs. As he sat there thinking about what to do, his stomach rumbled ever so slightly and he eventually got up and made himself a sandwich. Slowly he brought it up to his room where he sat down in front of the computer to comb through the bundle of muggle news sites he checked nearly everyday so that he was at least doing something with his time.

As the sun hung high in the sky, William got his wand and walked out into the backyard. While he was not allowed to actually cast any spells he was allowed to practice his wand movements and some of the more important tactics he had learned at the Dueling Club in his first year. William's Defense teacher had encouraged him very early on in the year to join the club so that he could better deal with the bullies who seemed to follow him like a plague. What William quickly discovered was that he greatly enjoyed dueling and had something of a talent for it.

Slowly he started out with his shield charms, moving through the motions several times, gesturing in several different directions as if he were being attacked from different angles. Then he started to perform the motions for jinxes, slowly thinking about the spells in his mind but not saying the words aloud. As the sun continued to progress he slowly started moving around, diving onto the ground, rolling across the grass, and jumping about. To anyone looking on it would have looked like William was some kind of mad man, but he was carefully practicing important dodge movements that he had been taught at the dueling club, along with the wand movements for counter-jinxes and hexes.

Eventually William just lay on the ground panting and sweating. The sun continued to beat down on him as he lay there staring up at the sky and wondering if there was anything else he could do. William wasn't old enough to cast spells outside of school and even if he could he lived smack dab in the middle of a muggle neighborhood, which he knew meant that even if he was allowed to cast spells normally he couldn't here without either a lot of privacy or an emergency. Slowly but surely he pulled himself up from the ground and made his way back into the house, happy to be in the shade and air conditioning of his home.

After a shower he sat down to read over more of his books from last year. He made sure that he knew all of the wand movements and had the proper pronunciations of his charms for what seemed the thousandth time when he heard the front door open, and he poked his head out of his room. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was his mother, she smiled up at him, and he called down, "Hi, Mom."

"Hello William," She said, gesturing for him to come down stairs. He came down quickly, happy to at least have someone to talk to. They slowly fell into a conversation about how their days had gone. William glossed over most of his day since it was the same as every other day; he had gotten up, practiced wand movements, and had lunch. His mother, a professor at the university, was able to tell him about her class that she was teaching that summer, several departmental meetings, discussions with grad students, and a whole number of other things that while he didn't quite understand he was still happy to hear about.

The sun continued to fall deeper into the horizon as eventually his father came home, also from a full day at the university lecturing and talking with students. Then came the family dinner when his sister got home from work reeking of hamburgers and french fries, where they all learned about her harrowing day in the food service industry in levels of detail that made William hope that he would never have to get a summer job like his sister's.

After the day finally came to a close, William sat up in his room reading a novel his father had bought him last week. Occasionally he would look up and stare out his window at the inky sky that rested over the small town where he lived. Asimov was flying around the town, hunting for mice or the like, while he sat in here wondering exactly what he would be doing tomorrow. With a sigh William Fraser closed his book, turned off his desk lamp, and crawled into bed.

He had one less day of summer vacation, which meant he was one day closer to the new school year and going back to his friends and his exciting life. It was one less day of pretending to go to some very secretive private school and one day closer to being able to proudly say he was a wizard. He smiled as he dreamed of the old growth woods around campus, and the thick ivy crawling up the school building.


	3. The Eric Grossman Debacle

As the days started to blur together boredom began to get the best of William and he sent an email to Megan O'Rourke. After a day or two she finally responded suggesting that they should catch up and wander around town like they used to do in elementary school. So for the first time in at least a week, William prepared to leave the Fraser house to do something outside of his usual routine. He tugged on his most normal looking muggle clothes; khaki shorts, a plain tee shirt, and sandals and headed out to confront the day.

Inverness Lane was silent as he carefully made his way through the shaded sidewalks toward Megan's house. It was midday and the sun peeked through the various tree leaves to provide a beautiful piece of light to William's world. As he walked he nervously gripped his wand where he had tucked it into the back of his pants. He had carefully placed his wand holster on the inside of his shorts where it was concealed by his shirt and shorts but still within easy reach. William couldn't explain why but he felt it was the right thing to do, as if leaving his house without his wand would be more dangerous than if a muggle saw him using it. With a deep breath he moved his hand away from it reminding himself that there would be no reason to use it, he wasn't going to run into Henry Blackstock, the school bully, anytime soon.

Slowly he walked up Megan's drive way and mounted her front steps, casually knocking on the front door. After a few minutes Megan appeared and flashed him a braces-filled smile. Her frizzy red hair was pulled back from her pale freckled face and her glasses were thinner than William remembered.

He noticed she blushed slightly when she realized what he was staring at, "They're new," she said with another smile. "My old ones were pinching my nose and didn't look right," She added as she closed the door to her house and locked it.

William nodded,"They look nice," fell out of his mouth awkwardly and he turned to start walking. They fell into an awkward silence as they started to move down Inverness Lane towards the center of town. After a few minutes, William asked, "Is your dad teaching summer classes too?"

"Yep," She said her hands swinging out in front of her as she clapped them together, "He always does. How about your parents?"

"Same," William answered, looking down at his feet as they walked.

Another block without conversation and Megan asked, "So how's your summer been going?"

"Alright," William said honestly.

"What have you been doing? We've barely hung out," Megan asked, a slight tinge of hurt coming into her voice.

"I've been studying and practicing mostly," He said without even giving it a second thought.

"Practicing?" Megan asked confusion clear across her face, "What have you been practicing?"

William quickly realized he had never told Megan about the dueling club, or well as he thought about the lie he had invented, the boxing club. He took a deep breath and with a steady voice answered, "I joined the boxing club last year at my school."

"You box?" She nearly shouted. She stopped walking for a second to look at him closely, as if seeing him in a completely new light.

William stopped as well, starting to fidget under her gaze, he uncomfortably explained, "Yeah, a teacher thought it'd be good, to help with bullies and stuff...ya know..."

"You're still bullied at your new school?" She asked with a frown.

William nodded in response realizing he had never told her about some of the down points of going to Salem. "It's not as bad as when I first started," He explained, "Now that I can fight back a little it makes it a bit easier."

Megan frowned as she started walking again, "I guess that makes sense." She then laughed a little, "Remember that time you fought Eric?"

William smiled, "Yeah." He remembered it well, it had been the day he had received his school letter and realized that he could do magic.

Megan smiled, "People still talk about that sometimes."

"Really?" William asked, his eyebrows shot up a little. Did people think he was some kind of freak because of that fight.

"Yeah," She answered plainly, "Just the one time when Eric didn't actually win a fight. A couple of kids on the math team think it's an urban legend."

William laughed, and Megan joined him as they turned onto the main street of town. Clustered around the college were a few tightly packed streets with shops and restaurants that people regularly shopped at with a few local hangouts and others clearly geared toward the college kids. Megan asked, "Do you want to grab lunch?"

"Sure," William said, remembering that he had some birthday money in his pocket. He felt around for the crisp muggle bills in his pocket, and frowned. They felt so different to the coins of the wizarding world and they only served to remind him of just how boring the muggle world could be some days.

They quickly made their way to a street off of the main road with a diner on it. The diner had been in the town for several decades, originally a malt shop back in the fifties and shifting with the times to now be a regular local eatery. William had never been to it much before but now he realized that as a seventh grader if he hadn't gone to Salem it would almost be expected of him to be here regularly. Megan moved through the front door without a second thought and William entered a little more hesitantly.

All around the place in booths and at the counter were a mixture of high school and middle school students. He recognized a few faces who were friends of his sister's or from the cafeteria back in elementary school. Megan walked towards an empty back booth and William followed. He immediately realized as they settled away from the door on the far side of the diner that the people changed subtly. While the people at the counter and in the bigger booths by the doors were older and looked mostly like athletes the kids on this side all seemed a little nerdier.

William quickly realized that he was, at age twelve, the most athletic person on this side of the diner. There were several pudgy high schoolers who seemed to be talking about spells, but William quickly realized that they were talking about some game when they mentioned a "magic missile". A few other people were gathered around someone with a laptop and were talking about things William couldn't even begin to make sense of. He settled across from Megan who seemed a little more at ease now that they had sat down.

After a very short while a waitress came to take their orders and then they sat across from each other awkwardly. Megan then asked out of the blue, "So when do you go back?"

William shrugged, "I'm not sure yet, probably the same time as last year."

Megan nodded as she sipped on her soda, "What's it like?"

William took a gulp of his soda as he tried to think of an answer. Like always he wanted to launch into a story about how different it was, and how he could cast spells. He frowned because he realized that he didn't want to tell her about the end of the year, when his friend had nearly died and he had been so afraid of what was going to happen. He shuddered as he recalled seeing Tall Elk hurl and dismember the students with a few flicks of his wand. Finally he realized that Megan was looking at him very intently. He had been taking a lot longer to answer the question than he had been planning.

Before he got to answer though, he noticed shock register across Megan's face. The area around them had gone deathly quiet and William turned around uneasily. Coming down between the booths was Eric Grossman.

The first thing that William noticed was that Eric had gotten pretty big. He had already grown a little and his frame had widened out. William now understood why he had joined the football team, he looked like he was already wearing football pads as he stalked over. On both sides he was flanked by the same stooges who used to flank him back on the bus last year. He had a crooked smile on his face. The middle school nerds shrunk away from him, and even the high school kids seemed more nervous than they should be around someone who wasn't even a teenager.

"Well if it isn't Megan O'Rourke's little boyfriend," Eric said haughtily. His two flunkies laughed surprisingly deep laughs for their ages.

William frowned and said coldly, "Hello Eric."

"I figured you had run out of town at the end of last year," Eric laughed again, and so did the people with him.

"Nope," William said trying to put some strength into his voice. He just needed to be strong and not get picked on.

"He goes to a super-awesome private school," Megan said, leaping to his defense just like she always had in elementary school.

"You go to a special school eh Fraser?" Eric smirked. His cronies repeated the words special, and they all laughed a quiet laugh.

William stood up, realizing quickly that he barely reached Eric's shoulder, "I have a scholarship." He lied boldly.

Eric gave him a light shove, "Yeah you would get a scholarship you little nerd."

William knocked his hand away, "Leave me alone, Eric."

"Or what Fraser?" Eric shoved him again, "You going to fight me or something?"  
Once again Megan leaped in and shouted, "He knows how to box now Eric, you should be careful."

William gulped trying not to blush or panic.

"Boxing?" Eric gave him a light punch on his shoulder, "Your girlfriend sounds pretty proud of you Fraser." Eric gave him another shove, "So how about it? You going to fight me Fraser?"

William tried not to groan. He quickly found his hand sliding over to his wand. He suddenly wanted to hurl any number of jinxes at Eric Grossman. He could make the boy dance or petrified or any number of things but he knew that he really shouldn't. William bit his lip, he really couldn't use any magic here.

All of a sudden he realized all eyes were on him. Everyone around him was muttering and whispering to each other wondering what was going to happen. A few kids mentioned the fight from last year and William frowned. The only reason he had been able to not get beaten up last time was that he had unintentionally used magic. As much as he wanted to use a little bit of magic he knew that he couldn't. William took a deep breath and then said as evenly and strongly as he could, "I'm not going to fight you Eric."

Eric frowned, "That's too bad." Eric made it look like he was about to turn around and William let out a sigh of relief. Only too late did he realize that everyone else had become very tense, he heard a high school student snicker.

Before he knew what was happening Eric had spun around and swung his fist into his gut. The air shot out of William's lungs like a bullet from a gun. William felt himself get lifted a little off the ground from the hit and landed back down uneasily. His hand immediately went for his wand and he was about to yank it out and shout a curse when he immediately bit down on his own tongue to stop himself. As he did, Eric slammed his fist into William's side and William stumbled off to his left.

William caught himself on the table and then took several deep breaths, trying to remember whatever he could that could help him. Quickly he realized that Eric's fists weren't much different from spells flying at him, perhaps slower even, but as he looked around at the tightly packed diner he realized he didn't have a lot of room to maneuver. Still, he had to make do with what he had. William ducked the next swing as he juked left, and then rolled out of the way of a kick, standing up before he hit the booth on his other side. As he stood he raised his arms up like his grandfather had told him to last Christmas, forearms and fists making a barrier between himself and Eric. Eric's goons had backed up a little and as Eric turned to face him William tried the Fraser Right Hook his grandfather had taught him. His fist swung wide and fast slamming with a light smacking sound into Eric Grossman's cheek. However even with all of his body behind it, William realized it was nothing compared to the football players who hurled themselves into Eric on a regular basis.

Eric was surprised though, which William tried to turn to his advantage with another punch but before he knew it Eric's friends shoved him down and Eric kicked him as he fell onto the diner's floor. As he landed hard, he could hear the owner of the diner shouting to 'Break it up' but William was a little too dazed to quite realize what was going on.

Everything else passed in a haze of confusion and shame. The owner had asked William if he was ok, and William had nodded. He had left without waiting for his food and Megan had chased after him. The two of them walked quietly home, with William rubbing what would be bruises in the next few days. As they marched forward in silence, Megan said, "Eric's such an asshole." William had never heard Megan curse before, and he looked at her. She bit her lip and blushed before justifying, "Well he is!"

William shrugged before muttering, "He's just a stupid bully."

Megan frowned, "Yeah, and he's always like that."

William nodded as he continued to stumble home with Megan beside him. When they arrived at William's house, he said, "I'll talk to you later."

Megan nodded, "Yeah, send me an email or something."

William turned and walked up to his house, turning as he closed the door. Megan was standing on the sidewalk frowning at him and he slowly closed the door. It was the last time he saw her for the rest of the summer.


	4. The Trip to Dragon's Plaza

William folded it over and over again in his hands that morning. A few weeks before the start of the new school year and William had finally received his letter with his new book list. For some reason a reminder of the new school year didn't fill William with the dread it had when he went to elementary school but a quiet cheer. The new book list reminded him that the past year had not all been in his head, that he had really gone to the Salem Institute for Magical Study and more importantly he would be returning. That day he told his parents about it and they had both smiled and said that since summer courses were wrapping up they'd once more make a family trip to Dragon's Plaza for his school supplies.

Even though they set out early on a Friday morning William didn't catch any extra sleep as they drove to Dragon's Plaza in the heart of Manhattan. Nothing could ever be as exciting as returning to the wizarding world. They pulled through the tight little streets that looked from a century past that lead to the small parking garage with the wide variety of magical automobiles in it. As soon as his father put the car in park William nearly burst out running for the entrance to Dragon's Plaza.

He took in every single facet of the strange vehicles as he tried not to dash through the parking structure toward the entrance to Dragon's Plaza. As he came up the ramp he burst into a run, blinking quickly as his eyes adjusted to the light of the late summer morning. William breathed in deep the smells of cooking dragon meat and potions brewing across the large square. He craned his head up immediately as post owls took flight bearing all manner of letters and packages through the air, a few people whizzed by on broomsticks, light summer cloaks and robes fluttering in the air behind them.

His eyes roamed across the crowds as he watched all the people pass by, students in a variety of robes and muggle clothing juggling books and school supplies as they went. For the first time in months William felt comfortable, in a way that he could never fully express to his family.

William's fingers trailed down to his belt and he gently removed his wand holster from the inner waistband of his muggle shorts, letting it hang on the outside proudly. He smiled, even though he wasn't wearing robes the ability to have his wand out made William feel like a wizard again. As he stood at the mouth of the parking garage, hands on his hips, his family finally caught up with him. His parents had clearly hung back for a moment to let him soak it all in again, coming up at their own speed.

With his shortened shopping list, William didn't have to make a full circuit of the stores this year. The Fraser family slowly meandered their way to the tightly packed book store they had gone to the previous summer. Elizabeth once again chose to wait outside, and as she did William noticed that she seemed to be looking around the Plaza like she was looking for someone. William shook his head and walked into the store.

The store was dark and smelled of book leather. His mother made her way through the aisles, and his father turned off down a different one while William decided to search for his textbooks on his own. With list in hand he walked through the tall stacks of shelves. Slowly he found himself with a load of books under one arm as he walked through the store to the far end in a shadowy corner. Here, much like last year he found his mother perusing through several darkly bound volumes.

"Mom?" William asked as he walked forward. She was deep in thought, her eyes scanning over the pages as her hands flipped through them. "Mom?" He asked again as he stepped closer.

She jumped a little bit as she turned, "Oh William, you scared me." She snapped the volume shut with a snap. "Have all your school books?"

"Yes," He said, she set the fine looking book down and William read the title in red letters along the dark spine, _A Brief History of the Dark Arts_.

She placed her hand on his shoulder and said in a somewhat shaken voice, "Come on William, let's go pay for your textbooks."

William nodded, wondering why his mother had been reading about the dark arts. He hoped that she didn't think he was involved in anything bad. As they walked to the front he felt a tingle in his leg and he bit back a sigh, realizing that ever since that had happened last year his mother had most likely been preoccupied with dark magic whenever she thought of the wizarding world. They quickly paid for the books, and headed back out into the ever brightening sky. William noticed an increasing amount of people flying around on broomsticks as the day progressed. The whole square was filled with people laughing and joking and enjoying the day.

As they started moving toward the clothing store William had bought his robes at last year his father said, "Hey, why don't you kids go on ahead, your mother and I will meet you at the ice cream store a few doors down."

William felt like a weight was lifted off his chest that he hadn't even realized was there. He turned to see his mother slightly confused, but his father gave her a look as they broke off from their children and toward a store a few doors away. As soon as they were out of ear shot, Elizabeth said, "Thank god, that could've been really embarrassing for you."

William found himself nodding along with his sister's statement, "Yeah, I guess so." They entered into the store, and William was measured quickly and quietly. He could hear other parents who were in the store, saying awkward things to their kids and to the store clerks about how the robes looked or hung on their children. William found himself very thankful of the fact that his father had sought to spare him from this kind of social torture as he saw a few Salem students he recognized by looks only staring down toward the students shopping with their parents. The social judgment of those students was palpable as he moved to pay for his robes.  
As William and his sister made their way out of the store, they bumped directly into a gangly youth with slicked back dark hair. William stepped back as he suddenly realized who he had bumped into. Theodore Stinson had also taken a step from William and his hand was already deep in the pocket of his robes as he glowered at William. William's hand rested on his wand as well, carefully watching Theodore for any sudden moves as the taller boy watched him very carefully.

"Fraser," Theodore said calmly.

"No Henry?" William asked.

"Where're your pathetic little friends?" Theodore sneered.

William noticed his sister had backed off a little unsure of what to do. William scowled back at Theodore and gripped his wand even tighter, noticing that Theodore was slowly moving his hand within his robes, getting ready to quickly remove his wand.

All of a sudden there was a low whistle and a voice said, "My my, Mr. Stinson, how does dueling in the streets of New York City really reflect on your family?"

Theodore tensed up immediately and turned his head. William looked up, trying to keep an eye on Theodore as he spotted the new arrival, the captain of the Salem Quidditch team Franklin Perry. William's sister suddenly moved forward when Franklin had arrived.

"Perry," Theodore sneered, as he straightened himself and took his hand from his pocket.

"Really Mr. Stinson, I always thought that your family was in some thing of good standing. I never thought they would produce a son who would just start fights in the street," Franklin casually moved around Theodore and then bowed with a flourish to Elizabeth, "M'Lady, I'm sorry that you had to witness your brother and this young cur nearly come to blows."

William's sister giggled ferociously as Franklin took her hand and kissed it gently.

Theodore then let out a huff, "At least dueling with a wizard is more respectable than porking a mudblood's simple sibling." Theodore then spit on the ground in front of Franklin and William before turning around.

William's wand was out faster than he realized he could move, but Franklin's seeker reflexes caught him and then he said, "It's illegal and against the Code of Conduct for Underclassmen to cast spells on breaks William."

William turned to Franklin, and said, "But!"

"Stinson's an idiot from a useless family, besides," He then looked out at the retreating seventh grader, "In a few weeks you'll be able to get your revenge without being expelled."

William's sister then looked at the two of them in turn, "What exactly just happened?"

Franklin smirked and then said, "Oh nothing in particular, just some narrow-minded prejudice that has no place in civilized circles."

Elizabeth shook her head and looked at her younger brother, "William?"

"Yeah," William answered, "What he said."

Franklin offered to take Elizabeth on a walk around the square that she graciously accepted, and he promised that she would not be gone for too long when William stated that they needed to meet their parents soon. Elizabeth had only giggled and told William not to worry about anything as the pair of them walked off.

William then turned in the opposite direction making his way toward parts of Dragon's Plaza he had only visited in passing. He jostled through the crowd of robed figures, trying not to gawk at every store front he passed by. It was as William came to one of the corners of Dragon's Plaza that the crowd seemed to stop moving but was packed around a particular store front. As he stepped forward he suddenly realized that they weren't quite packed as they were gathered around several outdoor tables.

Everyone was crammed against them listening to something on the wizard wireless. Suddenly there was a loud cheer when something was announced over the wireless. William looked around and suddenly saw a sign floating in the air above him, _Quods and Quaffles_ was the name of the place and he suddenly realized it was a big restaurant. As he continued to make his way through the tables he suddenly recognized one cheering voice toward the edge of the tables. As he approached the table he caught sight of Sarah Klein, the school's biggest Quidditch fan listening intently to the wizarding wireless, sitting next to her was a boy perhaps a year or two younger than her.

As he approached her, William waved his hand and called out, "Sarah?"

"William!" She smiled broadly as he approached, and then she said, "You'll never believe this Forgie just pulled off a Wrongski Feint!"

"A uh...what?" William replied.

Sarah groaned before saying, "You really need to get on the ball with Quidditch William, it's the sport that the rest of the world plays, not that stupid Quodpot." There was a round of 'hear hears' from a few neighboring tables. The young boy next to Sarah tugged on her sleeve, and Sarah groaned, "What Adam?"

"Dad and Grandpa said they wanted to meet us at the book store by noon Sarah," the younger boy, presumably Adam said.

"So?" Sarah replied as she turned to once more listen to the announcer for the Quidditch match.

"That was ten minutes ago!" Adam replied.

"Whatever," Sarah answered she then turned toward William and said, "I was coming back from getting some new robes when I ran into this place on accident, isn't it the coolest place ever?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I guess."

Sarah just shook her head, "Come on, it's a place where you can just sit and listen to Quidditch games and stuff." Adam tugged at her and she suddenly said, "Fine, alright we'll go." She hopped down from the table and then smiled, "I'll see you back at school William, hope your summer's going good!" She and her younger brother then moved out across the square leaving William to only shake his head as the crowd gathered at all the tables suddenly cheered again.

William made his way down past the rest of the shops and by the time he got to the ice cream shop he spotted his sister coming from the opposite direction. She was smiling broadly and he noticed that she did not have Franklin Perry with her, "Hey there squirt."

"Hey, where's Franklin?" William asked.

"Oh he had to go somewhere or something," Elizabeth shrugged and then stretched a little, "Anyway, I won't tell Mom and Dad about whatever happened in front of the robe store if you don't tell them I left you alone to go on a walk with Franklin."

"Alright, I guess," William responded unsure exactly why all of the secrecy was important but the one thing he did know was that he didn't want his mother worrying about the fact that he almost got into a fight in broad day light.

They then joined their parents in the ice cream shop, his parents had apparently only also just sat down, and they smiled when their children arrived. The family talked about how nice the day was, and how the robe shopping had gone, and after that they ate their fill of ice cream they turned to head out. As he descended into the parking garage William tucked his wand holster back into the waistband of his pants, happy that he did not use it against Theodore earlier. As the rest of the family made their way to the car he turned his head to gaze back at Dragon's Plaza and smiled, taking in every bit of it so that he could hold on to the memory as clearly as possible for the last few weeks of summer vacation.


	5. The Return!

With new books in hand the last few weeks of summer began to pass very quickly for William as he killed time in the Fraser home on Inverness lane. He slowly began to crack open his new books in an attempt to get a jump start on what he would be learning in the coming year. Furthermore he started to studiously go over some of his books from last year in subjects that he hadn't done as well in like History in an attempt to prevent being behind at the start of the year. Slowly but surely the weeks to the new school year became days and William started to become very excited over the coming school year.

The day of the train ride back to campus William had his trunk packed neatly and his mail owl Asimov fast asleep in his cage. The Fraser family got up early as usual to make their way into New York City to see William off. The ride was very peaceful, passing through the college town away from the students moving in that very weekend, and then down interstate highways that were empty at this early hour and then finally into the steel canyons of Manhattan where the sky scrapers glittered in the early morning sun. William could barely contain himself as they neared the train station and found a space in a parking garage near by.

Like last year the family stopped a little bit before the entrance to William's platform to prevent any muggles that were wandering by from noticing him going down to the magically hidden platform. His sister had merely smiled at him and said, "See you soon squirt." She then ruffled his sandy mop of hair.

His father shook his hand and gave him a brief strong hug, "I'm very proud of you William, now be careful this year, don't go looking for trouble."

William locked eyes with his father and then nodded, "I won't Dad."

William's mother then hugged him in a rib-crushing hug, "I should be here to pick you up at the end of the semester." She then smiled, "I love you so much William."

William hugged his mother back and then said, "I love you too Mom." They then parted, and William grabbed a hold of his trunk and Asimov's covered cage before making his way down to Platform 23 ½ .

William immediately looked around, he, Chris, and Nick were supposed to meet up on the platform and find a compartment together. After a few minutes of walking up and down the platform, he heard a booming voice from the train, "Hey William!"

William spun his head about and spotted Chris hanging outside of the train window and said, "I thought we were meeting on the platform."

"Well you took forever to get here so I figured I'd grab a compartment, see Nick yet?" Chris called back.

"No I haven't, you haven't either?" William called back as he walked toward the train window that Chris was leaning out of.

"Not yet, I figured he would've gotten here early since he's coming from a pretty decent way away," Chris replied.

William shrugged and then said, "I'm sure he'll turn up, I'll come and join you." William then clambered up into the train where he stowed his luggage in the front cargo section of the car they were in, and then moved to meet Chris down in the compartment.

Chris was still hanging out of the window calling out to people left and right, asking how their summer had gone and so on. William just settled back into the seat of the train, happy to once more be hearing Chris shout things at the top of his lungs while William could just relax and take in the wizarding world. All of a sudden Chris turned around and said, "I see Nick!"

William came up with a start, not even realizing that he had begun to drift off. He shot up and got to the window. They could see Nick walking down the steps with his luggage, and standing next to him was a middle aged wizard with some wrinkles and graying hair in some sort of uniform. "Who do you think that is?" William asked.

"I don't know, but he looks like a Marshal or something," Chris responded.

The officer turned and spoke to Nick briefly before handing him a bottle of something that Nick then stuck into his robe pocket, and then the officer took a step back. As Nick looked up and down the platform, William watched as the officer removed a long and strangely shimmering cloak that he then tossed over himself, the officer seemed to fade from view as the cloak fell over him, William kept trying to look directly where the officer had been but suddenly found his eyes moving away from the spot. Nick seemed to shrug his shoulders and start walking down toward the end of the train, before William shouted, "Nick, over here!"

Nick suddenly stopped and turned around before waving weakly, he then walked up to their car, jogging past their window and hopping up through the door as the whistle began to blow and someone shouted, "All aboard!"

Nick then arrived at the door. William couldn't help but notice the fact that he looked pale, and very tired, like he was just getting over a cold. Nick's dark hair was a mess and his muddy brown eyes looked somewhat darker than they had just a few months ago, they were also somewhat blood shot. Nick then sighed, "Just made it."

"Yeah, we were wondering what was taking you so long," Chris said with a smile.

Nick shrugged, "You know, just had to take care of some stuff."

William nodded and then asked, "Who was that with you?"

Chris then interjected, "Was that a Marshal?"

Nick shook his head as he yawned and sat down across from William, "Nah, it wasn't a Marshal, it was an Officer from the Magical Beasts Department. He comes by every so often to make sure that every thing is going smoothly."

"Oh," Chris answered.

William nodded, "What was that thing he put on?"

"Disillusionment Cloak I think," Nick said with a shrug, "I don't know, I try not to pay a lot of attention to him." He then paused, sinking back into his chair and closing his eyes for a brief moment, then he opened them and asked, "So how were your summers?"

William shrugged, "Eh, nothing too exciting. The only thing that really happened was that I ran into Theodore when I went to get my school supplies."

"What happened?" Chris asked excitedly.

"Nothing really, we almost got into a fight," William answered, then he paused and added, "It was stopped when the Quidditch Captain showed up, then he called me a mudblood."

"Whoa," Chris answered.

Nick's eyes shot open, "What'd you do?"

"I almost cursed him right then and there," William said, then shook his head, "But I mean, I figure he'll probably try something soon and we can do something then, right?"

Chris nodded vigorously, "Definitely man, we won't let him get away with that."

"Yeah," Nick added though it seemed somehow half-hearted.

After the lull in conversation Chris launched into the story of his own summer. He had gone to several quodpot games and had apparently found some places back home where he could fly his broom around even though he lived near plenty of muggles. "This one time," Chris regaled, "I actually almost ran into these Boy Scouts. I had been flying up in these old woods, and they were on this nature hike or whatever. So there I was zooming around, laughing my head off as I'm ducking through these branches, then all of a sudden I hear these kids talking. I slow down and move through the branches, and all of a sudden I see like ten or twelve muggles walking through the woods. I just yanked right up then and there without even looking where I was going. I hit a couple of branches but I'm pretty sure they didn't see me. Then of course I had to duck back into the trees as quickly as possible just in case someone else saw me. I mean seriously, who thought flying a broom would be so difficult."

Nick just shook his head, "You have to be more careful, you could've violated the statute of secrecy."

Chris shrugged, "Whatever, it's not that big of a deal."

Nick sighed, and then just leaned back and closed his eyes.

William shook his head as well, "Yeah, flying through muggle towns might not be the best idea in the summer Chris."

Chris shrugged, "Oh come on what's the worst that could happen?"

Nick laughed and then said, "Whatever."

They all became a little quiet after that, and William began to fade in and out. William came to when there was a knock at the door. William turned his head as the door opened and standing there was Sarah and standing behind her was her roommate Alexandria. "Here you guys are," Sarah said as she entered into the compartment.

Alexandria smiled at each of the boys and then sat down right next to William and gently smoothed out her robes as she folded her legs. Sarah meanwhile sat down between Chris and Nick, rousing the both of them awake, "Why are you guys all the way back here?"

Chris spoke with a start, "Because it's a good spot to be."

Sarah laughed, "Sure."

There was a quick recap of how everyone's summer had been, Sarah announced that the American team had apparently had a decent qualifying match for the Quidditch world cup, and might have a chance next year to make it into one of the big matches. She smiled broadly, "Fingers crossed but we might even be able to make it into the final match."

Chris snorted, "Who cares, it's just Quidditch."

"It's the world cup!" Sarah shouted, "It's one of the most important sporting events in the wizarding world."

"Pfft," Chris retorted, "I believe you are mistaken."

With that began the traditional shouting match of quidditch versus quodpot. Nick rolled over on to his side and closed his eyes. Alexandria merely turned her head to William, "I sometimes wonder if they enjoy arguing about this."

William laughed softly, "It happens too much for them not to on some level."

Alexandria's eyes kept drifting over to Nick opposite her in the compartment, "How is he?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I think he's had a rough summer."

Alexandria's eyes rolled, "Well I meant if the Beast was obviously changing him or not."

"What?" William asked, trying not to raise his voice.

"Well, he's a werewolf, they are considered dangerous for a reason," Alexandria replied.

William sighed, "I think he's doing fine, and I think all that is just a bunch of old legends. He hasn't changed at all."  
Alexandria nodded, "Maybe they are, you never know though, I know I've never met a werewolf."

William shook his head, "Well neither have I, but I'd bet that it's just a bunch of silly superstition he's the same old Nick."

Alexandria nodded again but kept a wary eye on him as she then changed the topic of conversation, "Is it true that you and Theodore Stinson almost dueled in Dragon's Plaza last month?"

"How'd you hear about that?" William asked eyes wide.

"Mr. Perry of Philadelphia wrote an editorial in the _Intelligencer_ about how certain families seemed to be raising children who do inappropriate things. He made mention of how his son had to stop two seventh grade students from Salem from fighting in the streets. So I asked around and some people said it was Theodore Stinson and you," Alexandria explained quickly.

"Wait, Franklin Perry writes for a newspaper?" William asked.

"Not Franklin, his father, and he doesn't write for it, he owns it," Alexandria replied. She then asked again, "So is it true?"

William nodded, "Yes it is. I bumped into him and we almost hexed each other then he insulted me, Franklin, and my sister. As he left I pulled out my wand and Franklin stopped me from doing anything," William replied.

Alexandria laughed her soft laugh before saying, "Well, the insults people throw at Franklin rarely bother him, but I can't imagine what he'd say to you. Unless he...oh my..." Alexandria frowned as William watched realization dawn across her face.

"Yes," William answered, "He said that sort of stuff."

"That's terrible," Alexandria said as she shook her head.

Suddenly they could hear the train beginning to slow down and then Sarah shot up and Alexandria slowly stood. "Well we got to get our stuff," Sarah said, "We'll see you guys later."

"Bye," Alexandria said with a smile as she followed her roommate out.

As the train rolled to a stop in front of the school, Nick rustled awake and then patted his robe pockets before nodding to no one in particular, "I'll see you guys later, I have to take care of some things after I move in." He then left the compartment quickly.

Chris shook his head, "That was weird."  
William shrugged, "He probably does have stuff to do after he moves in."

Chris nodded, "Yeah I guess."

The roommates grabbed their luggage and then much like last year wrestled it up the hill as older students began to surf their luggage up the hills and some people flew up with their brooms and luggage. "God I can't wait till we know some more spells," Chris said as he stared enviously at the upperclassmen zooming over the campus walls.

"I think we'll learn a couple of useful things this year, but we could probably just look up some of that stuff," William answered.

"Maybe," Chris responded as they walked toward Corey Hall.

Like last year older students were shouting directions to underclassmen, the sixth graders in particular. As they came into Corey Hall, Chris and William moved to the right while the sixth graders who were moving into the old senior dorms moved to the left so they could get their keys and schedules. Once more, William got his schedule from a wide-eyed house elf who magic-ed away his luggage to his room.

When he arrived back at Corey Hall 131 he unlocked the door, Chris right behind him. William took a deep breath of the fresh air coming in from the courtyard windows, and smiled. "It's good to be back," William announced to no one in particular.

He then slowly began to unpack and redecorate the room as Chris did the same. Even though it was never necessary for unpacking, he started levitating random objects about the room just because he could. Slowly the dorm room began to look like it had at the end of last year. Pictures hung up above William's desk, his quodpot horn rested in the corner, Asimov was resting in his cage. On Chris' side of the room there were several New York Sharks' posters, a few photographs from the games he had gone to over the summer, his Salem Quodpot accessories such as his horn, his foam finger, and the giant cat head he would wear every game. Settled in with all of the Quodpot stuff was his own broom and Quodpot pads as he was going to try out for the team this year. Finally William and Chris both pinned their schedules above their desks.

As William headed out to the dining hall that night he couldn't help but smile. The school year was finally about to start again and he couldn't help but be excited as he walked over the neatly maintained brick paths beneath the ancient trees of the campus toward the large main brick building with the ivy growing along side of it. His smile grew wide as he watched the sun gleam off the open blue shutters that stood beside every window, and he passed in through the dark black doors that rested open at this time of year.


	6. Back to the Basics

William had barely settled back in at Salem when the school year began. He discovered that the majority of teachers from the previous year would be continuing on as his professors through at least middle school. This did not necessarily surprise William, but it definitely made arriving in Mr. McAllister's Charms class all the more harrowing.

McAllister had started the year off, first day, first class, with a quiz on what they had learned last year. William had been able to show off the fact that he had been attempting to practice over the summer, and he tried hard to prevent a smile when McAllister had to give him begrudging praise mingled with him saying, "You better keep up this level of work Fraser." William gulped, very unsure if he would be able to stay on top of his Charms work this semester.

The first week of classes quickly came and went however. As the week progressed however he realized that Salem clearly did not believe in easing students back into the school year. By the end of the week he had brewed a potion from last year as well as a new one, had to change a box into a rat, and had his first exam in History of Magic that was half review half new material from the first week. On Friday night as William made his way across campus after a grueling two hours of potions he felt exhausted.

His robes were stained with various ingredients, and they smelled not only the same horrible stench that the actual potion was supposed to be but carried the variety of scents from other students' failed attempts. William didn't notice Henry Blackstock or Theodore Stinson because of his sheer fatigue from the past week. However, they didn't care why he was not noticing them, just that he was.

"Not even a friendly hello, Fraser?" Called Henry as he got up from one of the lawns beside Corey Hall.

William sighed, and as he turned to say something, he immediately rolled to the right as a jet of light came rushing from Theodore's wand. William hit the ground hard, losing his books as he rolled away but he was able to make it to his feet in time to throw up his shield charm. Theodore once again whirled his wand around and called out a spell that William didn't know as Henry quickly began scattering William's books and notes all about the surrounding lawns.

William was about to turn and shoot a hex at Henry when Theodore let forth another barrage giving Henry just enough time to call out a charm that sent a gust of wind through all of William's school books scattering them further. Henry and Theodore laughed and then ran off. William raised his wand at their retreating backs and then shook his head before turning to gather up his books and the like.

As William slowly began to gather up his notes from his last class he heard a voice call out, "_Accio _books." All of a sudden all of William's things went flying off in one direction. He turned around quickly to find Clark standing there with his books under her arm, and a stack of papers in the other.

He stared at her and then asked, "How'd you do that?"

Clark smiled as she walked across the space between them and handed him his books, "It's a pretty simple spell you'll learn it in the next year or two."

"Oh," William said as he accepted his books and then added, "Thank you."

"It's no problem," She then paused, "Why were all of your things scattered around here anyway?"

William frowned and then said quietly, "I tripped and then the wind blew them everywhere."

Clark frowned and then said with a hint of sarcasm, "Oh yes, it's very windy out today."

William didn't look up as Clark then patted him on the shoulder before adding, "Well on a happier note, the Dueling club will be starting up again next week. I expect to see you there." She then extended a flyer to William.

William nodded vigorously, "Of course I'll be there."

"Good," Clark replied, "I'd hate to see a duelist who was afraid of a duel." She then smiled at him before walking off, whistling as she went.

William sighed, he didn't like lying especially when the people he was lying to knew that he was lying to them. But he just didn't want to admit that within the first week back he was already being bullied again, and there was nothing he could do when two people ganged up on him. It wasn't a fair fight, and no amount of hexing or jinxing could stop both of them at the same time. William shrugged and made his way back into Corey Hall, where he showered and changed out of his clothes before starting on his homework.

Within a few days William smiled as he was once more descending into the basement of the Dueling Club. It was good to see everyone again and as always he gravitated to his fellow seventh graders, Hobbes and Rosenberger were standing around talking though they grew somewhat silent as William approached. He shrugged and then frowned, wondering where Nick was. After a few minutes he stumbled down the stairs looking tired and haggard as William had realized was now the norm for Nick.

He clambered over to William, straightening his robes as he came. William barely noticed that Hobbes and Rosenberger both stepped an extra foot away when Nick arrived. Nick turned away from them and then asked William, "So how was your first week back?"

"It was alright, a little hectic," He then paused, "What about you, I barely saw you."

Nick shrugged, "I have a pretty busy schedule these days, plus I completely forgot what it was like to be in school, y'know?"

William nodded, "Yeah, no one's really giving us much of a break for being back."

There was a bubbly laugh from behind them and they turned to see Clark standing in her usual dueling garb as she walked up to them. "Why do you think you deserve a break, Fraser?" William shrugged unsure of how to respond. Clark then smiled and added, "You've had all summer to rest up, people." She then surveyed the seventh graders with a devilish smile, "I hope you're all ready, Tall Elk has already told me that I'll be in charge of you again this year, so there's no reason to wait." She then raised her wand and started trying to hex them at random. Everyone immediately spaced themselves out and began casting their shield charms.

Clark smiled then said, "Good, good, now let's start with some basic drills." She then started running them through various hexes, and jinxes, correcting them as needed. William suddenly felt very good to be back in the dueling club, having Clark shout things at them while they all attempted the various spells. Every so often Clark would try to hit people with a hex and they'd be expected to stop it with their shield charm. By the end of the night, everyone was sweating through their robes and Clark dismissed them.

William clambered up the stairs behind Nick, he noticed that the two other seventh graders didn't immediately follow them. When they got outside the stadium Nick partially collapsed against the wall taking in deep breaths of the cool night air. William stopped, and he watched as Nick brushed back his hair and rubbed his forehead like he had a head ache. William immediately noticed deep scars on Nick's upper arms when the sleeves of his robes fell back. Nick quickly readjusted the robes when he caught William staring at his arms. They didn't say anything but William found himself frowning anyway. Nick then stared up at the sky, and smiled. William followed his gaze and found that the sky was full of clouds he shrug unsure of exactly what about clouds made Nick happy.

William then asked, "Are you ok?"

Nick nodded as he propped himself off of the wall and then said, "Yeah, just a little bit more tired than usual that's all." After another pause in which he looked around quickly he then said, "Come on let's get going."

William nodded and the pair quickly made their way back to Corey Hall and then separated as they moved toward their separate dormitories.

A few days later while William was making his way down the halls to his defense class, he suddenly heard a quick shout, and all of a sudden he felt a strong gust of wind hit him hard in the back. William was able to stick out his leg fast enough to prevent himself from falling over completely but it didn't prevent his books from flying out of his hands and all over the ground. He turned around, hand resting on his holstered wand. Per usual, Henry and Theodore were both casually leaning against the wall, and laughing at William's 'misfortune'. William didn't know what charm Henry kept using or even where he had learned it, but he had already after not even three weeks back at school grown tired of it. William was about to pull out his wand to hex them when the bell sounded. Both bullies immediately booked it and William quickly darted back around and rushed into his Defense classroom.

As he was about to open the door, it burst open and a boy his age with tightly curled ringlets of black hair, smooth white skin, and a fine set of robes in the Salem blue rushed out of it. He scowled at William before brushing past him quickly and angrily. William scuttled into the room as Tall Elk entered from his office. The teacher gave William a look and then said, "See me after class Mr. Fraser." Just as the class was about to make the standard round of low murmurs and giggles at a student getting in trouble Tall Elk's gaze cut them off.

William took his usual seat next to Alexandria on his right, and normally Nick on his left. But once more, Nick was mysteriously absent just like he was yesterday. William sighed as he looked around, wondering if Nick was sitting elsewhere for some reason but he wasn't. Tall Elk however began to launch into his lecture regarding proper wards against small pests and other less than lethal magical creatures. It would be another week or more Tall Elk had said before they would begin moving on to actually dealing with these run-of-the-mill magical creatures, and as usual when someone questioned what sort of hexes would be best for banishing or incapacitating such a creature Tall Elk began a lecture about the first line of defense. He sighed and stated, "The purpose of my teachings to you is that if you follow them correctly, and take the proper measures to defend yourself from various dark creatures you will never have to encounter them at all because they will never approach you. I am going to prepare you for those eventualities, especially at this level since we are dealing more with pests than dark beasts, however there is no sense in building up a repertoire of various spells against different creatures when a few wards will protect against all of them. By the end of this week you will be learning to cast these wards. Next week we will see how your wards fare, and after that I shall teach you various spells to counter these creatures. Is that clear?" He gazed out at the class, and the class nodded together as one. He then nodded and returned to his lecture, iterating the important parts of the particular ward he had been discussing.

As the class ended, William made his way to Tall Elk's desk where the old teacher was waiting for him as the rest of the class silently filed out. Tall Elk then walked into his office and William followed, like the previous year William marveled at the various items that were on the office. The fire stayed calmly down barely lit as Tall Elk took the seat behind his desk and gestured for William to take the seat opposite.

William settled into the comfy arm chair and had to take a deep breath, wondering if Tall Elk was truly going to reprimand him for being a few moments late. Tall Elk took a deep breath as well, steepled his fingers, and then calmly asked, "How was your summer, William?"

William blinked, confusion evident on his face, "My summer was, a little boring, sir."

Tall Elk nodded, "It always is that way with muggle borns. But the first time being away from magic is always the hardest, it gets easier with the passing of years." William nodded carefully, unsure of exactly why Tall Elk wanted to speak to him. "Are you settling back in?" Tall Elk asked after the brief pause.

"Yes, sir," William said, "I'm glad that the dueling club has started back up again."

Tall Elk smiled, "As am I, and I'm very glad to see you back in attendance." He then paused and eyed William very carefully, "But returning has been fine for you William, nothing is particularly bothering you?"

William then took a deep breath, and asked, "I'm slightly worried about Nick, do you know if he's sick sir?"

Tall Elk seemed somewhat surprised by the question, "Mr. Hawthorne is dealing with some fairly difficult problems and adjustments this year, I would expect him to miss class on a regular basis." He then gave William a curious look, locking his weary dark eyes upon the younger boy.

William felt somewhat uncomfortable under Tall Elk's gaze but then said, "Alright sir, I just hadn't realized that he would be so..." He paused unsure of what to say.

"Lycanthropy is a horrible affliction William," Tall Elk stated with a grave edge to his voice, "I am saddened that Mr. Hawthorne must bear the burden at such a young age but it is the price he must pay. There is also little you can do beyond remain his friend." Tall Elk then paused and said, "It was good to touch base with you William but I should certainly let you get going, I wouldn't want you to completely miss your lunch period."

William nodded and rose from his chair. Tall Elk nodded as he let himself out of the office and then the classroom. As he exited he found Alexandria waiting for him, she smiled when he stepped out brushing out her fine blue robes and a lock of her dark hair. She then asked in her calm and cool voice, "Did he really give you detention for arriving late?"

William shook his head, "No he just wanted to talk to me, I guess."

"Ah," Alexandria said as she fell into step beside William. William was confused as they walked toward the cafeteria while he knew they shared the same lunch period, he had not eaten with her all semester and was trying to remember if he ever had outside of a few special occasions. She then asked, "Did he say why Brian was talking to him?"

"Brian?" William asked, unsure exactly who she was referring to.

"Brian Waldorf, he nearly knocked you over when he left Tall Elk's classroom," Alexandria explained.

"Oh no, it didn't come up," He shook his head, "Why do you ask?"

Alexandria shrugged her slight shoulders, "I know that Mr. Waldorf is not known for being kind to half-breeds and muggle-borns, and I doubt he's happy that his son is living with a werewolf." She then began to speed up as she called over her shoulder, "Curious to see how far the apple fell from the tree."

William paused and watched as Alexandria continued to walk away from him. He shook his head and shrugged, wondering if he would ever understand purebloods.


	7. Proper Decorum

William flipped through a few more pages of the massive tome. It was relatively late at night and he sat in a back corner of the library trying to concentrate on writing his most recent paper for History of Magic. It was hard to wrap his head around what the Great Goblin Contract was let alone how it played into the creation of the United States. He flipped back a chapter where there was a copy of the document itself, however as he looked it over he realized that it had never been updated to anything resembling modern English spellings, and was of course written in legal language that he couldn't understand even if it was.

William rested his head against the book and had to refrain from banging his head against it again. He still had a week on the paper, he had just decided to make a crack at it before heading to his astronomy class that evening since he had to stay up late anyway. Slowly he closed the massive book shut and turned to a much slimmer volume he had picked up off of a shelf while he was doing research on the Great Goblin Contract. He opened it to its title page and frowned, _The American Werewolf: A Guide to A Most Dangerous Beast_. The subtitle hadn't been written on the spine. Ever since he had spoken to Professor Tall Elk William had been trying to figure out how to help Nick, if there was anything more that he could possibly do. In the library though he hadn't been able to find much so far on how to help a werewolf, only how to ward them off, kill them, and in one case an ancient text on how to 'exorcise the demon that afflicted them', however he realized that the process described in that text was a patented method to kill a werewolf in another. If there was one thing he had learned through reading on werewolves it was that apparently most wizards did not like them and considered them horribly dangerous, in most cases too dangerous to live.

As he pawed through the book, taking notes in a vain attempt to try and see if there was anything capable of helping Nick adjust to life as a werewolf, he heard a quick snicker. William looked around but didn't see anyone in the small clearing amongst the stacks that he had situated himself in. Still something was nagging at him, as he squinted trying to look into the stacks themselves. That's when he spotted another robed figure who quickly rounded the corner with his wand out.

Henry Blackstock, unaccompanied for the first time William could remember that semester, was as large as ever. His dark stubby wand was out and he quickly shouted the incantation of the same wind spell he'd been using since the start of the year. Henry quickly let out a chortle as all of William's notes went swirling into the air. Before William could do anything however Henry had already turned off and was running through the stacks. William sighed as he turned to collect his notes. As he was slowly rearranging them though, he took a deep breath and remembered what Clark had said about a duelist afraid to duel. He shoved his notes into his backpack haphazardly and slung it over his shoulder, leaving the books he had taken to be reshelved by one of the librarians as he jogged off in a different direction from Henry.

William was relatively familiar with the library and he knew that Henry didn't have astronomy tonight, meaning that he was probably heading back toward Corey Hall. William burst out of a side entrance in the direction of Corey Hall and turned toward the main entrance of the library. Strolling casually down the length of the building was Henry Blackstock looking relatively pleased with himself. William let the door close shut with a small boom, and pulled his wand from his holster letting his bag drop as he did. He stood there facing the bully unsure of exactly what he was going to do.

Henry stopped about a dozen feet away from William, he slid his wand out of his pocket and smirked, "What are you looking for a beating Fraser?"

William shook his head, unsure of exactly how to respond to the bully. He wasn't even sure if he was going to throw the first punch. All he knew was that he wanted to stop the bullying this year before it became a serious problem.

Henry scowled, as he began tossing his wand to and from his left and right hands, slowly moving out in a semicircle around William. The quick tossing back and forth of the wand was strange, though William could remember an old film where people handled knives that way but that film had also had a lot of singing and dancing. Of course, wands were very different from knives as well. Without even thinking William tried a spell older students often used in dueling, "_Expelliarmus!_" A bright flash of light raced towards Henry and hit him square in the chest. However, while Henry's wand jumped up out of his hands, he gripped the short little wand quick and hard.

William was already on the move when Henry called out a hex that smashed into the door William had been standing in front of. Henry spun and shouted another hex as William jumped into the air and called out a curse of his own. Henry tried to jump aside only tripping over himself as he did so. From the ground though he called another hex, that William caught on a shield charm. William spun about and hit Henry with a jelly-legs curse just as he came to a standing position. Henry dispelled it as he stumbled again, getting solid ground enough to shoot off another spell.

The air in front of William glowed silver as the spell bounced off of his shield charm once again. William then called out another jinx in the hopes of throwing Henry off balance. He did once more get the larger boy off kilter, and struck again with a second curse. Henry grumbled and then cast one of the counter-curses to stop his legs from dancing. With one arm still spasming, Henry shouted a spell that William wasn't familiar with.

William was suddenly blasted with a stream of water, and found himself coughing and sputtering as well as knocked to the ground on his behind. As he shook out his now wet mop of hair, and picked his glasses off to dry on the bottom half of his robes. He looked around once they were dry and saw Henry running off back toward Corey Hall. William sighed, checked his pocket watch and then cursed as he realized that he had to get moving to make it to Astronomy on time. He righted himself, grabbed his luckily untouched backpack and then broke into a run to the astronomy building.

At the next dueling meeting he was surprised when Clark lined them up but didn't begin calling out drills. It had been a few days since his run in with Henry and he was somewhat proud of how he had moved around, though he hadn't told anyone yet because fighting was against the code of conduct, still he had been looking forward to new spells and drills this week. Clark instead was watching them, and then shouted, "Stand up straight seventh graders." They all tried to stand up a little straighter, and Clark then said, "It is time that I began preparing you for the appropriate method of dueling. Last year I taught you the basic spells you would need to know to survive a duel, and the importance of movement during a duel. However this year you will be learning the proper decorum of the dueling circle. You will be expected to always maintain an accepted stance during drills, and I will be explaining the proper theory of how a duel is won. Are there any questions?" She gazed at them all in turn.

Hobbes raised his hand, and Clark nodded at him, "Why do we need to learn how to duel properly?"

"Because the only way to win at a tournament is through proper dueling, and the Salem Dueling Team expects you to win at the tournaments you attend," Clark responded, "In the weekly sparring here at the club when you're an upperclassmen you will also be expected to follow a tournament standard."

Hobbes nodded slowly, and then William raised his hand, Clark looked at him, and he then asked, "Why didn't we learn proper decorum first?"

Clark smiled, "Because part of proper dueling is understanding the basics of how a person fights with magic. It's hard to understand why more points are awarded at a duel for disarming, or out-maneuvering an opponent instead of just overwhelming them with a stunning spell without having at least an idea of what those things might be."

As no one else raised their hands, Clark then began to teach them several standard dueling stances in addition to the ready stance William had learned the very first night at the dueling club. He quickly discovered that there were at least five acceptable forms of appropriate stance, five forms they would all need to know and be expected to fall into when Clark told them to. Before she dismissed them Clark taught them the all-important salute which they would be expected to use at the start and end of every duel. It was very simple and merely consisted of raising one's wand parallel with your face, locking eyes with an opponent and nodding before swinging the wand down into a ready position.

As they were dismissed William noticed that Nick was already slinking out of the basement without even grabbing a cup of water. William quickly jogged off after him, to find him standing outside sucking in deep breaths of the cool early October air. He straightened up and as he did he let out a resounding hacking cough, Nick turned around and was surprised to see William standing there.

"Hey," William said. Nick just nodded, as William looked into his sunken brown eyes. "Pretty crazy that decorum stuff," William said in an attempt to ease the tension that had somehow built up between the two of them.

"Yeah," Nick said with a tired air to his voice. He straightened out his robes, and particularly tugged on his sleeves as he began to walk away.

William fell into step beside him, unsure of what to say. After a few minutes he asked, "How are you doing?"

Nick shrugged, "I'm alright I guess," He didn't look at William as he coughed again. He had to pause as he coughed once more, his whole body seemed to shake as he made the massive hacking sound. Afterwards he spat out something from his mouth. "How about you?" Nick responded as he started walking again.

William tried to ignore the horrible hacking cough his friend had just released and said, "Oh you know, classes and stuff. Still having a lot of trouble with that History paper."

Nick nodded wearily, "Oh god I keep forgetting about that paper." Nick shook his head.

As they started walking William slowly realized that Nick was veering off in a different direction, "Hey Corey Hall is this way."

Nick nodded, and then said, "Yeah, I know but I have to get some work done tonight, and it's just hard to get it done in my room, so I'm going over to the library."

William nodded and then said, "Well, curfew's in an hour but I could get my stuff and meet you at the library..."

Nick was shaking his head, he coughed again and replied, "Don't worry about it, it'll be better if I don't have any distractions."

"Ok," William responded, he then watched as Nick stumbled off down the old brick path toward the library. As he slowly turned down the path toward Corey Hall he began to wonder if there was anything he could do to at least help alleviate the constant pain and fatigue that seemed to be plaguing Nick. He shook his head, realizing that if there was anything that anyone could do someone besides a seventh grader would've clearly thought of it and done something by now.

William entered his dorm room, and per usual after the dueling club clambered into bed and prepared to drift off to sleep. Chris was still sitting up working on something at his desk. As William started to drift off however Chris asked, "Does it ever seem like this year is just really boring?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, it's been pretty hectic with classes and stuff."

"Well, yeah classes are annoying and stuff," Chris responded, but then said, "But like I miss sneaking out at night to go spy on those dark wizards and stuff. I mean..." He paused.

William shook his head, "I don't know if I'd like to get into any more trouble."

Chris replied, "Well I don't mean like something dangerous like that but I mean doing something fun but sort of mysterious." He paused for a few long moments, "I don't know I just feel like nothing is happening this year and that it's supposed to be."

William turned over, yawned, and said, "I guess, I'm just happy that there is nothing going on. Probably better that way."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Chris replied as he stood up and blew out the candle he had lit up, "Still sometimes I wish it were a little more exciting."

William shrugged, "I don't know, exciting is kind of dangerous."

As Chris fell back into his bed, he replied through a yawn, "Eh, what's the worst that could happen."


	8. Day By Day

William awoke to the loud blast of a quodpot horn one Saturday morning in mid October. The sun had just started to creep through the dorm window creating an orange light over the whole room. Per usual for quodpot Chris was decked out in his full Salem garb, cat-hat, horn, and foam number one finger. William had a vain hope after Chris hadn't made the quodpot team that his enthusiasm for the school's team might have abated somewhat but he was as big of a fan as ever and he was still determined to make the team next year. William had skipped the first game because he had been trying to study for a Charms exam, however this time he had no excuse. Chris blasted the horn again and tugged at William's comforter, "C'mon man, it's quodpot time!"

William sat up, and replied, "Yeah, I'm coming Chris."

"Awesome," Chris shouted as he moved toward the door, "I still can't believe you missed the first game against the Eagles, it was crazy."

William shrugged into a set of black robes, and grabbed his horn as he followed Chris outside. The hall was once again in an uproar, most students were in full quodpot cheering gear, and people were letting out whoops of excitement. William even spotted one guy from a few doors down wearing face paint.

"I guess," William responded, "Did we win it?"

"Barely," Chris responded, "A shame we hadn't played that way during the play offs last year." He let loose another blast from his horn and the sparkling words 'Go Salem!' burst out of it. This resulted in a full horn blast from several other students, each shooting out a random phrase.

As they moved through the crowd William once more felt the pounding in his heart that only a quodpot crowd seemed to be able to bring on. If someone had told him in elementary school that he'd actually be excited to go to a game like this when he got to middle school, William definitely would not have believed them. "Who are we up against this time?"

"The Gators," Chris responded as the crowd rounded the corner and joined the sixth grade crowd.

Most of the sixth graders were not as decked out as the seventh graders, William could even spot a few students who looked simply confused as they were pushed along with the crowd out of Corey Hall.

"Where are they from?" William called back as they came out into the light of the early morning.

"Louisiana I think? Maybe Mississippi," Chris called back, "Somewhere around there. The school's called the Academy I think, I don't know much except it's real name is French."

William nodded, even though there were only a few magical schools in the country William couldn't find much information about them outside of their sports records since that was the only reason students paid much attention to other schools. He shook his head, he'd probably have to find someone who knew a person who went there if he wanted to know anything about the school.

The crowd was now making their way toward the stadium which per usual had a large crowd around it, as they walked up to the stadium, Sarah fell into step beside them wearing a stylized blue and black scarf around her neck. She smiled at them and said, "I figured I'd find you guys heading to the game."

Chris smirked at her and then said, "Going to a quodpot game, finally ready to admit that this is the greatest sport?"

Sarah let out a short 'pfft', "No, but these games shut down the whole school, and I'm ahead on my homework so what else is there to do."

Chris shook his head, and then his eyes went wide as he locked onto the scarf around Sarah's neck, "Are you wearing a Quidditch Scarf?"

"Of course," Sarah responded as she touched the scarf. "What do you not wear scarves for this barbaric game?"

Chris began a rant on quodpot that William believed somehow had to do with why a scarf was inappropriate attire but William began to zone out. He was looking around for Nick but he quickly realized that the other boy was not in the crowd. While Chris was still talking, mostly to himself at this point, William asked, "Did Nick say he was going to come?"

"Huh?" Chris stuttered being broken out of his long-winded lecture, "Oh he said he had work to do or something."

"Oh," William replied. It was not like Nick was a huge fan of quodpot or anything, but still William had expected to see him here as most of the school was apparently turning out for the event.

William, Chris, and Sarah had all ascended up to the stadium seating and quickly squeezed into a random row. William looked around, the stadium was packed, "So what exactly is the deal with this game?"

"What do you mean?" Chris asked as he looked around.

Sarah replied, "The Gators were the national champions last year."

"You didn't know that?" Chris said as he turned to look at William.

William shrugged, "The end of last year was..."

"Right," Chris answered, "But this is quodpot we're talking about." Sarah burst out laughing and William couldn't help but crack a smile as Chris continued to keep an entirely straight face.

The crowd was starting to become their tense selves as the stadium began to settle in for what was supposed to be one of the first big and important games of the season. William quickly learned from word that had circulated around the crowd that Salem's last game was a strong start, and that if they could beat the Gators here it'd be the start to an amazing season. The Gators appeared to the standard cheering from the small visitors section on the opposite side of the field from the massive Salem student contingent. William noticed that their team were all very big, none of the smaller players that he remembered teams sporting last year. The Salem team arrived to the standard deafening shouts of the crowd William had grown used to, feeling his own voice become a little strained as he cheered.

Just before the game was about to start though, Sarah untied her scarf and held it above her head as she stood up. William then noticed that a whole grouping of students around them did the same thing. The whole group of students started singing a song that William had heard a few times at the Quidditch games last year. William looked around, most of the Salem crowd was groaning or laughing, a few people were even booing the Salem students singing. William turned to see that Chris had a death glare on aimed directly at Sarah. A few people threw pieces of paper as the song came to an end, and William heard one person shout, "Get out of here you damn Quidditch fans!"

Sarah fell back down into her seat giggling her head off while Chris just shouted, "What are you doing this is Quodpot!"

Sarah shook her head, and said, "We all thought it'd be a good idea to add a little culture to this horrid game."

Chris just shouted incomprehensible phrases, but was cut short by the quod being launched into the air and the standard wince-inducing crash of players. Out of the scramble burst a massive Gators player, who was rushing for the pot. Just as he was about to toss it out though, a Salem player came crashing directly down past him, and shoved him aside. The ball banged against the pot instead of falling in and exploded harmlessly in the air. Another ball shot out on the Salem side, and the Salem player that had just blocked the goal had it in his hand. As he made it a little bit past the halfway mark of the field, covered by two players, a huge mass of four Gators players crashed right into them. The quod went flying and there was another resounding crash of athletes.

The game continued in the same fashion for the entirety of it. By the end of the game, both teams were playing at an equal half strength, and the score was deadlocked at a tie of one-one. The crowd was tense, it would be impressive to stop the current champion team at this score. Of course, it would have been even better to beat them. As the clock was coming down to the last minute, the Salem team had made their move.

They captured the quod from one of the partial advances made by the Gators clearly designed to hold the game in the current stalemate. The whole team then formed up on their largest player who held the quod and they rushed toward the pot on the other side of the field. The Gator who had made an attempt at the goal moved up behind them but one Salem player stopped suddenly and smashed into him as he kept advancing. The Gators had formed up a little bit past the half way point and came crashing directly into the Salem team, and the large player holding the quod had dipped down below.

As the scramble broke apart, one of the Gators zoomed off after the low flying player. The Salem player was zig zagging and practically skimming the field, the Gator was able to make the tight turn to avoid crashing directly into the ground and started gaining on the Salem player as he started his ascent. Just as he was reaching back to toss it into the pot, the Gator player made his move and crashed up into the Salem player from below. He lost his balance, clutched the quod close to his chest to avoid losing it to the other team, and it then exploded in his hands as the clock sounded out. While it wasn't a clear win, it showed a very strong start for the Salem quodpot team and the whole crowd went wild. Horns were blasted, foam fingers waved, and no one booed as the Quidditch fans once more broke into song and swung their scarves above their heads.

The school was celebrating the game into the mid-afternoon, with people singing and dancing in the dining hall throughout the entirety of lunch being served. While people had initially booed the Quidditch song the fans had sung at the game, someone had during the course of lunch realized that a faster tempo could be applied and now it had gained a sort of chanting rhythm to it as the quodpot team partially jigged to the tune and the clapping of the student crowds.

Sarah had already left when the song was adopted by the quodpot team, muttering something about how there was just no hope for the sport of quodpot. Chris had been up and dancing with a few seventh grade girls that William didn't recognize. William gave his roommate a wave and made his way out of the dining hall.

While William had had no excuse for skipping the quodpot game he couldn't stay and party the tie score all day. The History paper was due in the middle of the week and he still barely knew what he was actually writing about. William casually walked through the falling amber colored leaves toward Corey Hall. Plenty of students were out and laughing now that the quodpot game was over, the air was crisp but not exactly cold, and everything just seemed nice as he made his way back to the dormitory building.

As he rounded the bushes leading up to Corey Hall, he suddenly heard someone shout an incantation he had never heard before. William leaped a few feet in the air as he suddenly felt a tight pinch on his chest like someone had squeezed and twisted it. Wand in hand he spun around toward the bush and quickly rounded on it, remembering that this was where Henry and Theodore had waylaid him a few times. He realized they weren't there and as he looked around, he spotted the pair on the far corner of the building. Henry slinked out and called the spell again. This time William noticed the faint purple light burst from the bully's wand and threw up a shield charm.

Even with the dozens of yards between them William could hear Henry's grunt of frustrations, he then shouted back, "Best watch your back Fraser!" The pair then ran off.

William sighed he was hoping that after the night outside the library that Henry would lay off entirely if not for more than a few days, at least a week. William rubbed his chest as he kept walking in to Corey Hall. When he was getting changed to take a shower, William caught sight of himself in the mirror. On his upper chest around his nipple there was a light purple bruise. William sighed, suddenly remembering a month when Eric Grossman had continuously given him 'purple nurples'. He sighed, apparently Henry was familiar with the bullying technique and had literally discovered a spell to do it. William shook his head wondering just what Henry would think of next.


	9. Howling on Halloween

Before William could really believe it the school was transformed for the upcoming Halloween festivities. Everywhere he looked there were floating pumpkins and skeletons moving about. The trees had turned into the fiery array of colors that signified autumn was in full swing. Students were already starting to bundle up against the onset of cold New England weather and William was no different as he made his way to the campus kitchens in the last few days leading up to the holiday.

William wore his thick school scarf, potion gloves for their warmth, and he was actually wearing two sets of robes to keep the surprising bitter chill of the wind off of him. The students had the Monday after Halloween off and so plenty of teachers had made a majority of work due that Tuesday thinking the students could use the three day weekend to do it all. Because William had spent the past several hours in the library finishing up an assignment for Charms and a paper for History he had missed the standard weekend lunch hours in the dining hall. Luckily the kitchens were open if you knew where they were, and William knew that if he were to get his Wards paper for Tall Elk done before Halloween he'd probably have to work through dinner.

Entering through the main hall William ducked down one of the steep stone stair cases that lead into the basements where the kitchen was. He slowly unwound his scarf as he made his way into the oppressive warmth with the countless fires burning and pots boiling. House elves were scurrying to and fro as they prepared not only for dinner tonight but the feast tomorrow evening. The smells of the kitchen were tantalizing as William stood there soaking them in before ordering a sandwich for later and whatever leftovers they had from lunch. As he stood back awaiting the arrival of his food, he felt a tap on his shoulder, William turned to see Franklin Perry standing next to him.

"How have you been William?" The older student asked. William realized that he too was waiting for the House Elves to serve him a late meal.

"I'm, uh alright," William responded to the older boy.

"Working hard I take it?" Franklin asked gesturing to William's presence in the kitchens, there weren't many other middle schoolers about, mostly upperclassmen.

William nodded, "Trying to get all of my work done before Halloween."

Franklin chuckled, "Aren't we all?" He then patted William on the shoulder, "At least you have a better chance of getting it done."

William looked at him, "You don't think you'll be able to?"

"Probably not," He responded, "I have more work due on Tuesday than I'd really like to think about. It's just what happens to upperclassmen." William gulped trying to imagine what his workload would look like in a few years. The older student laughed as his bag of food arrived and he said, "Don't worry about it William, you'll be able to deal with it when the day comes." He then left, whistling a jaunty tune as he ascended the stairs.

William's bag came next and he quickly shuffled up the stairs and back out into the bitter cold. He quickly made his way for Corey Hall, at least happy that he didn't need to do much research for his Defense paper. He smiled knowing that he at least wouldn't have to spend the rest of the day in the library.

As he returned to his dormitory, he spotted a letter in the small box affixed on the door that operated as his and Chris' mailbox for anything sent through the muggle post office. William was used to it being empty and so was surprised to see the small white envelope sticking up out of it. He swiped it up and carried it inside. Chris was gone, presumably off practicing his quodpot skills or doing work himself, William was never quite sure where Chris was most days and had begun to even stop noticing his roommate's absence.

William opened the letter as he began to eat his lunch, and was somewhat surprised to see that it was from Megan back home. They had exchanged a few emails since the day they hung out together over the summer, but he started to assume that they were just slowly starting to drift apart. He smiled as she wrote about how her school year was going, and she continued to discuss her new life as a middle school mathlete. She told him that she had started playing something called a role playing game with the other mathletes, apparently Megan was a sorceress who fought goblins. William laughed, surprised how in only a little more than a year his appreciation for muggle fantasy had nearly completely disappeared. He had always enjoyed science fiction more anyway, but now that he had money in a bank run by goblins, and was a wizard himself the concept of pretending to fight goblins for their gold with magic just seemed preposterous. Besides, as he had finally finished some of his History homework he began to wonder if it really could ever be a good idea to fight a goblin, they apparently were more dangerous than their small frames would suggest. He then frowned as the letter briefly described that since their meeting over the summer, Eric Grossman did still enjoy singling out Megan for teasing and bullying though it was nowhere near the extent that he had once bullied William. William sighed as he finished the letter, even after he was gone Eric Grossman still somehow was able to cast a shadow over his life. William then set the letter aside, he'd write a reply on Monday before that though he had to do his work.

The next day William was able to awaken late because he had gotten all of his work done the previous night. The whole school was already in a festive mood, Chris was gone as William got up and ready for the day. The dormitory had a pair of skeletons dancing through them tossing candy at the students and several floating jack-o-lanterns. A few students were flicking hexes jokingly at each other, as William turned into the bathroom though he was hit with a spell that had started to become familiar to him, the purple nurple charm that Henry had started favoring. William looked down the hallway to see the large boy smirking from outside of his room. William rubbed his chest and entered the bathroom, hoping that his indifference to the bully might help somewhat in alleviating the problem.

After showering William made his way out onto campus, happy that the weather had improved somewhat that he didn't need more than his scarf as he walked amidst the amber leaves falling about. People were playing pick-up games of quodpot and quidditch around the campus, and other students were sneaking off into the relatively untouched parts of campus. William wound his way around the campus just enjoying the fact that he had no work to do, though he began to wonder what exactly his friends were doing as he made a full circuit of the grounds without ever spotting Nick, Chris, or Sarah.

Finally as he ducked into the main building prowling past where tables and booths were being magically set up by house elves, teachers, and students, he spotted Alexandria on the second floor. The pureblood girl was merely standing on the balcony overlooking the entrance hall with her standard bemused look on her face. William waved as he ascended the stairs and joined her on the balcony. He looked over the entrance hall and then turned to her, "What're you watching?"

She shrugged, "Nothing in particular, I was actually thinking about the Halloween gala my family goes to every year."

"Oh," William responded, unsure of what he could really say.

She then just frowned, "It's a tad more elaborate than this but I think the celebrations here at the school are a little more exciting." She then smiled at him, "How are you occupying yourself this Halloween?"

William shrugged, "I've just been walking around campus, I did all my work yesterday and I haven't seen anyone around till just now."

Alexandria nodded and then stared off into space for a moment before saying, "I'm fairly certain Sarah is at one of the random games of quidditch that have burst out across campus. I think at least one of them had an actual snitch and I'm fairly certain she's a seeker."

"She is?" William responded, turning his head to watch Alexandria.

"I think so, there's a fairly easy way to check though." The small girl then turned on heel, her dark hair and rich navy blue robes flowing about her as she moved. Despite her small strides she moved quickly and with a purpose, William quickly moved to follow her and fall in step beside her.

The small girl then paused at a door William barely noticed. She then looked around the hallway, craning her neck all about. With a swift movement a smoothly polished golden wand slipped out of her robe sleeve and she then murmured, "_Alohamora_," and the door lock clicked softly. Alexandria then opened the door, and gestured for William to slip in before her as she then closed the door behind them, murmuring another spell and the lock clicked back into place.

William only stared at her as she then lead him up a staircase toward the roof. "Did you really just?" William asked as they made their way upstairs.

"What?" Alexandria replied, "Do you think that you are one of the only people at this school who does things they're not supposed to?" She giggled as she came to a door in the ceiling that she unlocked and opened like the door into the staircase.

William clambered up onto the roof after her. They were standing on a flat part of the roof, there was no one else around except for a few owls that were resting on the school roof. All around them people were flying about on broomsticks playing a variety of aerial games across the campus.

Alexandria then pointed to a game not that far from the roof of the school, "There she is." William spotted a small blond haired form in a game only a few dozen yards from the roof they were standing on. Then William noticed the blond haired form move quickly through a grouping of players and come out of it with a smooth red ball. "Oh, I suppose she is a chaser then," Alexandria responded with one of her short quiet laughs, "It's so hard to keep quidditch straight."

William shrugged, "I don't know it's all pretty weird to me." Alexandria nodded, and then William asked, "So how did you know how to get up here?"

Alexandria smirked, "As I told you, do you really think you're the only one who does things they're not supposed to on campus? I know my fair share of passages on campus. There's a set of underground tunnels beneath the school you know. Lots of older students spend time down there."

"Really?" William asked, he suddenly wondered why if there were tunnels that the dark wizards last year hadn't used them.

"Yes," Alexandria replied with a slight cold edge to her voice.

"Have you ever been down into them?" William found himself asking.

Alexandria only smiled in response and headed back down the open portal back into the school building, William followed after her. When they got back out of the stair case Alexandria only said, "I need to get ready for tonight, I'll see you this evening William." William nodded as he watched the small pureblood girl depart.

The daylight quickly dissipated and the sky grew dark, the number of jack-o-lanterns floating across campus increased, and Halloween entered into full swing. William was once more in the entrance hall, moving about playing various games, and eating a wide variety of food and sweets. With a plate piled high he settled in at the table that Chris, and Sarah had grabbed earlier in the evening. A few other students had come and stopped by at various points to eat or talk though William had only recognized them from classes and the like. At the moment it was just Sarah and Chris sitting down as William settled in.

As he slowly began to eat his dinner, William looked around, and then looked up at his companions before asking, "Have you guys seen Nick around today?"

Chris shrugged, "I think I saw him earlier."  
Sarah shook her head, "Now that you mention it I haven't seem him at all tonight." She now began to crane her head about and look around for some sign of the other boy.

William shook his head, and then stood up, "I think I'm going to go look for him."

"Alright," Chris responded, "I'll ask around see if anyone's seen him."

William nodded as he walked off from the entrance hall and the revelry of the Halloween party. He slowly combed through the entirety of the main academic building, earning more than a few dirty looks when he entered rooms unannounced and a couple of minor jinxes from older students who had wandered off looking for a certain amount of privacy. Eventually he came out onto the grounds themselves walking around looking for anything in particular. Slowly as he started maneuvering around some of the less traveled parts of campus he heard voices, and they didn't sound very friendly.

"Why do you even think you're good enough to be here?" Called the voice of someone definitely older than William.

Someone then made a noise, it sounded like 'a-roo', like they were trying to sound like a dog howling. William crept up on an older unused building on one of the edges of campus, amidst a stand of trees. Standing in a clearing in front of the old building were several upperclassmen and at their center was none other than Nick. Most of the students had wands pointed at them, and in the flicker of the moonlight William spotted that one of them had a leash wrapped around Nick's neck. William frowned as the older students continued to speak.

"You were probably in on the whole thing last year," Cawed one of the older girls.

The person holding the leash yanked it and Nick stumbled down, "What did the plan backfire and you got bit by the terrorist?"

Nick coughed, and in a hoarse voice said, "I'm not..."

"Shut up!" Shouted one of the older students as they cast a quick hex on Nick causing the seventh grade boy to whimper in pain. "You're a Werewolf, a dark and dangerous beast, of course you were in on it."

"Yeah," Shouted the one with the leash as she yanked it again, "Now get up dog."

William stood and watched for a few more moments. He didn't know when his wand had gotten into his hand, or why he was shaking so hard, but William wasn't really sure what was about to happen. As the girl who had Nick leashed once more yanked on him again, William called out, "_Diffindo!_" The leash snapped with a loud crack and the older students paused.

William stood in the half-shadows of the trees and moonlight and then started lashing out with any jinx or spell that came to mind. He realized as he shot out the spells that each one was accompanied by a shower of sparks bursting out of his wand. William had never quite felt so angry before, and he didn't stop calling out spells until after the last of the older students had run away. Finally he stepped into the clearing, and then ran over to Nick.

"Nick," He said as he knelt down to help his friend up, "Are you ok?"

"Why..." Nick coughed as he slowly came up to his hands and knees.

"I don't know, they're..." William grasped for the right word, "Bigoted assholes or something..."

Nick coughed again, and then asked, "No...why...why are you here?"

William helped Nick to stand up and he said, "Because I was wondering where you were, and I've been looking for you." Nick shook his head backing away to half-stand a few feet from William, "Nick, seriously, are you ok?"

Nick shrugged, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine, whatever."

William shook his head, "Nick you're not fine, you were just being beaten up by older kids. Come on, let's go to the nurse or something."

Nick shook his head and said, "No I'm alright."

"Nick, come on, I'm your friend, and I'm worried about you," William said as he stepped forward, "You're not ok."

Nick then let loose a bitter laugh, and William stopped in his tracks, "How the hell would you know, William?" William stared at his taller friend, and in the moonlight through the torn robes he could see that Nick was thin as a rail, gaunt almost, and there were plenty of scars lining his body up and down. "You've been off trying to be a straight A student or whatever it is you spend half you're time doing. Sure you have lunch with me, but you're more busy in the library or going to quodpot games to know how I'm doing. What were you doing before you realized I was gone? Enjoying the party?" William's mouth just hung open as he stared at his friend. Nick continued, "If you were my friend, you would've sent me more letters over summer break, you would've been here every day. Hell, do you even know when the next full moon is William? How can you be a werewolf's friend and not know the next time I'm not going to be around is?" William tried to speak but Nick just cut him off, "Whatever, we're not really friends William. I can't really have friends anymore." Nick then just threw his hands up into the air and stormed off in a random direction.

William just stood there and watched the boy who he had always thought of as his best friend at school walk away. William finally shook it off, and started walking away. It had just been the whole night talking, Nick didn't really think that, did he? William returned to Corey Hall, surprised by the late hour as he came into his room, Chris was dead asleep in his bed. William just fell back into his own bed, and stared at the ceiling for a while, unsure of exactly what had just happened or why he felt so suddenly empty.


	10. The First Full Moon

The next few days started to pass in a haze for William. He had tried to speak with Nick, but the other boy had actively started to avoid him, not bothering with more than simple pleasantries when they passed in the hallways or saw each other in the dining hall on the rare occasions that Nick was actually eating around people. William found himself alone on a regular basis, often working late in the library or the like unsure of exactly where he stood with anyone anymore. Had he really been ignoring the pain of his friend?

One night William found himself sitting up in the potions laboratory. He had no papers due, the dueling club didn't meet that night, and William simply just didn't know what to do with himself. Per usual Chris seemed to be somewhere else when he had gotten back from dinner, and there were no sporting events that night so William was left to his own devices. Plenty of people had been in the lounge listening to things on the Wizarding Wireless but William didn't really know them, nor did he really care about the quodpot game most people were transfixed upon. So there he was staring at an empty cauldron, debating on whether or not to make some sort of potion just to test himself. After all, William considered, midterms were only a few weeks away.

The potions lab was a fairly compact room in a part of the basement, not near the main potions classroom's at all. He had discovered it one day when he had taken a wrong turn heading down toward the kitchens, and William slowly learned that it wasn't well known to most of the student body. After a few moments he opened up his textbook and sighed, trying to think of which potion he had brewed the worst. As he started skimming through the pages, the thick wooden door opened. William turned to see none other than Franklin Perry entering with a mug.

The older boy paused when he saw William standing there, "Hello William." He blew on the mug, smooth white steam curling up out of it, "What're you doing here?"

William shrugged, "I don't really know, going to brew something I guess."

"What'd you miss a class or something?" The older student asked as he set down his large cauldron at a table not far away, slowly taking out jars of ingredients as he sipped from his mug.

"No, just preparing for midterms," William answered.

Franklin shook his head and replied, "William it's the first week of November, midterms are over a month away, don't study for them go enjoy an evening with out homework."

William shook his head, "All of my friends are busy..." He then sighed, "Or not talking to me."

Franklin's eyebrows perked up, "Not speaking to you?"

William nodded, "Yeah, my friend Nick, he sort of..." William shrugged.

"Isn't that the werewolf?" Franklin asked. William noticed that the older student didn't have the general alarm that most people did when they asked that question.

"Yes," William answered, "Why?"

Franklin shrugged, "He must be having a rough time, especially with the full moon being in a few days. Plus, you know, everything else." Franklin shook his head as he started pouring in various ingredients to the cauldron. William noticed the older student didn't seem to be consulting any sort of directions as he tapped his wand to the table and a small fire appeared. "I still can't believe the prejudices of some people these days. My father is thinking about writing something about it in the _Intelligencer_."

William looked at the older boy and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well the Waldorf boy," Franklin replied as he murmured a spell and the potion started to stir itself, "I'm sure you know more about the situation than I do though."

"What situation?" William asked as he stood up and crossed over to the older boy's table.

"That Brian Waldorf is trying to move out of the room," Franklin said with a hint of surprise in his voice, "How could you not know about that? It's caused a bit of a stir."

Suddenly William remembered how Brian had stormed out of Tall Elk's office, and how the few times he had seen Nick at times when Nick should have been heading back to his dorm he had always found some excuse to delay a little longer. "Oh my god," William said as he then collapsed onto a nearby stool.

Franklin stared over at William and then asked, "What?"

William shook his head, "Nick was right, this whole time, I've thought we were friends but..." William bit his lip, he was not even sure how to admit that he had ultimately been the worst best friend he could ever imagine there being.

The older boy sighed and then said, "Hey, it's alright, I'm sure you'll be able to make it up to him or something."

William sighed himself, and then said, "I can't even imagine how I could begin to make it up to him."

"Well," Franklin smirked as he began to chop up some roots, "I know when a girl gets angry with me for not paying attention to them, all you have to do is show them you care. I mean, granted that's a much less severe situation, so you'll have to go an extra mile but it's not like you don't want to, right?"

William nodded, and then watched the older boy quickly chopping the roots, they were uneven cuts. William then said, "Yeah, you're right. By the way, it'll work better if you have a fine chop of the roots."

"Oh?" Franklin then looked down at his cutting board, and then nodded, slowly going back and dicing up the roots. "Are you good with potions?"

William nodded, "It's one of my favorite subjects."

Franklin then smiled wide as he slid the roots into the cauldron, "I am as well actually, though I'm glad you caught the roots issue, that could've been bad." He then took a long sip from his mug.

"What are you brewing exactly?" William asked as he looked down into the older boy's cauldron. The potion had a creamy sheen to it, and was a deep blue color, slowly bubbling.

Franklin smirked, "It's a very important potion, though you'd be hard pressed to find the recipe in the library."

William nodded, "Alright." He backed away a bit and then asked, "Is it something...dark?"

Franklin burst out laughing, "Certainly not, though I suppose some people would like to pretend it is. It's just a prophylactic potion. It's a bit more trustworthy than the spell..." He then paused and said, "You'll learn about the spell when you're older, trust me. I just prefer the potion, it lasts longer and is more stable."

"Oh," William answered suddenly backing away a little bit more.  
"Anyway, if you're good with potions, you could try your hand at brewing a Wolfsbane Potion, it's pretty advanced stuff but," He then shrugged, "I'd be willing to help you if you think it'd help your friend."

"What is it?" William asked once more leaning in again.

"It basically makes being a werewolf a tad easier," Franklin answered, "I mean, he probably gets it from one of the potions teachers or the government I'd guess but it'd probably be a good gesture or something."

William nodded, "I'll think about it."

Franklin smiled, "Good." William then sat for the rest of the evening while the older boy continued to brew the potion. Franklin taught William a few of the simple charms he had used to ease the brewing process, and then when it was finished the older boy poured it into a few different vessels and smiled, "You should probably get going, your curfew is coming up I think."

William checked his pocket watch, and then nodded quickly, "Yeah, I really should, thanks Franklin."

"Any time, William," the older boy responded giving a wave as William exited the room with his books and cauldron.

By the following week, William had already begun to read up on the Wolfsbane potion though he realized that he was already too late to provide it to Nick this week, he hoped that next month he'd be able to truly show his friend that he did care and did want to help. Meanwhile, William continued to notice that Nick was trying to ignore him. As he was preparing to leave Defense on Monday morning, he was about to walk out when he paused at Tall Elk's desk, "Sir?" He asked as he looked at the older wizard.

"Yes, William?" The older wizard asked as he waved his wand over the board, erasing the notes in a simple flash.

"I was wondering if I could speak with you about something," William asked after a deep breath.

"Certainly, let's step into my office," The older wizard moved calmly into the cozy office, gesturing for William to take a seat. "What's on your mind?" He asked leaning back into his chair.

"It's Nick, sir, I'm worried about him," William said after a long few moments passed.

"Ah," Tall Elk responded, nodding slowly, "He is going through a very difficult time William."

"I know, sir," William then shook his head, "Or well, I don't really know, I mean..." William shook his head and sighed.

The older wizard nodded, "It is difficult to stand by someone William, especially when they don't seem to want help." The older man then slowly stood up, and moved toward the fireplace which as usual had a smooth crackling fire warming the old office. He then looked at the young boy sitting in the thick leather chair, "I can tell you William that everyone wants help but it takes time for people to accept that."

William nodded slowly, "But there has to be something that..."

Tall Elk raised his hand to quiet the young boy, and then frowned, "Sometimes we must accept the things which we cannot change William. More often than not, we merely need to give things time to sort themselves out. Time can be dangerous, for people can stew with time, but sometimes it helps to heal wounds and calm us down. Nicholas will come to terms with what has occurred to him, and if you are ready you will be there to stand by him when he does but for the time being all you can do is try and be there when he calls for you."

William frowned, "Alright, sir."

Tall Elk sighed, "I'm sorry William." He then moved and sat down in his chair again, "I shall tell you that it was devastating when I saw what happened to Nicholas, it is never easy to deal with lycanthropy especially when one is very young. It is not a disease that is kind to its host, and our society is most certainly not kind to anything that is different."

William nodded, then took a deep breath, "Sir people are..."

Tall Elk nodded, "I am aware of the horrible things that he is going through William. I know the pain which he is undergoing for wizarding society is not known for its kindness, and children can be quite cruel." He then locked his eyes with William, "But Nicholas much like you is a duelist, and if you are his friend I hope that you will do whatever you can to stop it just as the faculty is."

William stared back at Tall Elk's ancient eyes, "Sir are you saying that I should...fight people?"

Tall Elk didn't shake his head he merely said, "William I am asking you to stand up for what you think is right. I hope that you can find a better way to do that than to hex people."

William nodded unsure of exactly what to say to his defense professor, he finally decided on, "Yes, sir."

As William stood to go, Tall Elk called after him, "Just give it time William, all things become better with time."

"Right, sir," William responded as he left the professor's office, closing the door shut behind him.


	11. On the Hunt

William's feet were crunching through the first heavy snow of the season several weeks later. There was heavy cloud cover that night, but every so often the light of the full moon would peak through the clouds and dance across the perfectly laid down snow. William sighed, midterms were just a few days away but after the past month, he knew that he had to find where Nick went on the full moon so he could see his friend the first thing tomorrow and show that yes he cared, he cared enough to be there through the worst of times.

It had just been a few days ago, but the memory was burned clear into William's memory.

For the past several weeks he had been working hard under Franklin Perry's tutelage to produce the Wolfsbane potion. It was a particularly tough brew but William had been able to do it largely without Franklin's help, which the older boy had been quite surprised by. The potion had a week-long brewing process, and all of the ingredients had to be input when the moon was in the sky even though they were inside. Each ingredient had to be carefully measured into the potion or else the entire thing wouldn't work.

William recalled the careful weighing on his scales that had been required for the powdered root of the Black Mercy which was the crucial piece in making the potion work. When the potion had been complete it was a deep blue color, with a very smooth texture, with a light acrid blue smoke coming off of it like wisps of steam. William had then placed it into a large vessel that Franklin had lent him for the occasion with a cork that he had to cut a small hole into so the fumes could escape instead of building up.

As one of the classes he shared with Nick ended, he caught up to the taller boy in the hall. Nick had at first ignored him, but then stopped after a few feet of William casually walking beside him like they had last year. "What?" Nick finally said after stopping.

"Look," William had explained, "I don't really know what you're going through, but I want to be your friend Nick."

Nick let out a grunt of, "Whatever," and started moving again.

William grabbed him by the sleeve, Nick tried to shrug him off, but William held fast and said, "I don't really know what to say but I did find a way I might be able to help."

Nick paused for a brief moment, and so William brought out the large bottle with it's faint blue smoke coming out of the cork. Nick's eyes grew wide as he stared at the bottle, and he suddenly grabbed William, and threw him into a nearby boy's bathroom. "Are you insane?" Nick whispered quickly.

William shook his head, "What's the problem it's just Wolfsbane potion."

"I know what it is," Nick growled, his face looked almost hurt at the words. "My point is that it's highly regulated and can only be made by Department licensed potioneers."

"What?" William replied, staring down at the bottle. He then shook his head, and extended the bottle to Nick again, "But you need it."

Nick growled, "I already have mine." He then turned his back on William, "You'd know that if you had been paying any attention."

William bit his lip, he had hoped this wouldn't turn into another example of how he wasn't Nick's friend. "Nick, I just wanted to..." He trailed off unsure of what to say anymore.

The taller boy just left with a brief murmuring of, "Whatever."

William had been left standing there with a large potion bottle filled with a week's supply of Wolfsbane Potion. William took a deep breath, opened up the bottle which began spewing blue smoke at a steady rate and then poured it directly down the drain of one of the sinks. He could only stand there shaking his head as he watched the smooth perfectly crafted potion go sliding down the drain. William was just happy that no one had come in to see the few tears coming down his cheeks.

That was why now on the full moon William had decided to hunt down Nick's hide-a-way. He wasn't exactly sure where they would keep a werewolf on the full moon but William was certain that it had to be somewhere relatively untraveled on campus. William started out by making a circle of all the old clearings that the dark older students used.

It was strange to revisit them, in the past few months they had become overgrown with the standard forest underbrush but were still relatively distinct from the rest of the forest around them. William eventually made it around the edge of campus to the old courtyard where Nick had been bitten last year. William took a deep breath as he stood in the heavy snow of the old courtyard. They had fixed the gate, it was no longer twisted open but instead sat perfectly crafted as if it had never been torn apart by a dark wizard. Even the old walls had been removed of the horrible scarring that the battle between Tall Elk and the dark students had caused. William walked up to old walls and ran his fingers over the smooth brick, it was hard to believe that it had only been a few months. As his fingers touched the brick he felt a light throb in his leg and William sighed, the pain would occasionally come back when he thought about that night.

William then traipsed off in a different direction than he was used to, his feet crunching through the snow as he searched for some of the old buildings that he knew were around campus. Eventually he came upon a small dilapidated outbuilding along the far wall from the main gates of campus. William checked his watch and shook his head, it was well past curfew and he would definitely not have a fun walk back but still he had to look around.

William came up to the old building and tried the door. The door was stuck at first but he quickly realized that it wasn't locked but just so rarely used. William shoved open the door by pushing his shoulder into it, surprised by his own strength. As he entered the old building he looked around unsure of exactly what it was, "_Lumos_," William murmured as he closed the door with a bit of effort behind him.

William was surprised to see that there were several candles about the room, and a huge clump of several candles melted together on the center of an old wood table. He crept up to the table, and tapped it with a murmur of a fire charm and the candles burst to life revealing the ancient stone of the outbuilding, a hearth in one corner as well as a rotted out staircase, and another door in the wall to the right. There were yellowed pieces of parchment tacked up onto the walls of the building, William looked at them carefully and realized that they were carefully drawn maps of the east coast though the boundaries were a little strange. It was as he carefully looked at them and suddenly realized that there were several states missing that William realized that the map was from the colonial era.

It was as he ran his fingers over the aged parchment that a voice suddenly called out with a measure of authority, "What are you doing here?"

William let out a shout and spun around with his wand tip lit up. He backed up immediately as a glowing translucent figure was hovering just outside of the door in the right wall. It was an image of an old man, his face showing many lines and weathering with a tuft of fine hair on his head. His clothing was surprisingly simple, a pair of breeches that tapered off into ghostly nothingness, an open shirt and a dark vest that matched his breeches. Finally the figure seemed to be leaning on an old cane that much like his legs seemed to disappear into nothingness. The old figure glowered at William, and William suddenly couldn't help but feel ashamed as if he had somehow been caught doing something wrong by his grandfather or the like. The figure then said again, "I asked what you are doing here boy, now speak up."

"I...I'm..." William grasped for words unsure of exactly what to say. Finally finding his voice he pronounced, "I'm looking for a friend of mine."

The old figure glided forward, and William backed up slightly, it extended the cane and William could feel a cool breeze as the figure seemed to rap the cane against him. "Well no one's been through here in quite some time, boy." He then scowled down at William, "You're a little scrawny to be a student here boy. What's your name?"

"William," William stammered.

"William what?" The old man said as he floated around the small seventh grader.

"Fraser," William answered trying to maintain a sense of confidence, "My name is William Fraser."

"A scot," the old figure murmured. William stuck out his chin exactly unsure of how to respond to the remark. "You're out late looking for your friend. Is he missing? I'd have expected to be informed."

"Not quite," William answered.

"Well if he's not missing, then why are you looking for him?" The old specter asked as it floated toward the table.

William moved to stand across the table from the being, and answered, "Because he's my friend and it's the only way I can..." He shook his head, "It's complicated."  
"Trust me, boy," the spirit replied, "I know about complicated situations. I can't imagine you have anything too complex going on at your age."

William shook his head and then explained, "My friend is a werewolf and he's not talking to me anymore. But it's the full moon and so..."

The old man suddenly burst into a rage, "Are you daft boy?" A cool wind blew across the candles and put them out, "You don't hunt down a werewolf on the full moon unless you have some sort of death wish. Friend or not."

William sighed, "I just," He then shook his head, and then admitted under the glare of the angry old spirit, "It's pretty ridiculous but I just thought it could somehow work."  
The old spirit shook his head and then said, "I'm sure there are better ways to patch things up with your friend, trust me boy." He then glowered at him, "You should get going now."

William nodded, then made his way to the door under the watchful eye of the spirit. As he opened it up, William frowned, it had started to snow again while he had been in the old building. The spirit then grumbled, "Damn, alright boy follow me no sense in walking around in weather like that."  
William closed the door, and then pried open the door that the spirit had entered through following him into a tightly packed area with a kitchen, and an old upstanding closet. The spirit paused to stare at William, "Where's your cloak boy?"

William shrugged, "Well I don't really have one, sir."

The old spirit gestured to the upstanding closet and William walked over and opened it. Inside he was surprised to find that there were several old looking black cloaks, along with a few sets of hats, boots, and some spare shirts. The old spirit explained, "There always used to be people coming and going through here." William grabbed one of the smaller cloaks and found that it still draped around him several times and dragged on the ground a bit. The spirit just grunted, "You'll grow into it, now down through this door here." He gestured to a door in the wall next to the one through which they had entered.

William opened it to find a set of roughly hewn stone steps that lead downward. He followed them by the light of the old man and then asked, "Sir, if it's not too impolite, are you a ghost?"

The old being grunted out a rough laugh, "What are they teaching at the school these days. Of course I'm a ghost."

William nodded, unsure of what to say, and then he asked cautiously, "How did you die?"

The ghost grew quiet as it floated down and then grunted quietly, "Carelessness."

William let out a brief, "Oh," then grew quiet again.

The staircase lead into a dark set of tunnels that the ghost began navigating through with ease. As he lead the way, the ghost asked, "Where do you live, boy?"

"Corey Hall," William responded as he followed the ghost, tugging on the cloak he had gotten from the old building, as it was equally as cold in the tunnels as it had been above.

The ghost let out another raspy rough laugh and then said, "That's a good dormitory, I know it fairly well."

William nodded as the ghost continued to guide him through the twisting winding tunnels, past forks and junctures that William couldn't quite follow. Finally the ghost stopped when he came to a hole in the side of the cavern wall that sloped carefully upward. "Here you go," the old ghost answered, "It will let you out into the courtyard at the center of the dormitory. Good luck, boy."

"Thank you, sir," William said as he bundled the cloak up. Unable to shake the old man's hand, he pulled out his wand and saluted the ghost.

The ghost smiled, and returned the salute with its incorporeal cane. "Stay out of trouble, William Fraser."

William nodded, and clambered up the smooth slope before coming to a stone slab. He was surprised to find that it had a simple hand hold that when he gripped it, the stone suddenly slid away with a smoothness that only magic could bring. William then climbed out of the tunnel and out into the snow under the full moon, after a few moments the stone slid silently back into place and he found himself in a corner of the dormitory's courtyard. William carefully made his way to the entrance that connected to his hall, unlocked the door, and then slipped in before heading back to his own room. In his room he hung up the old cloak in his closet and then carefully and quietly slipped into bed for a quiet and peaceful sleep.

As he lay in his bed, William suddenly realized something. Only in the quiet of the dormitory did he realize that there was a sound missing from when he was down in the tunnels. The entire time he had been down there he could've sworn he had heard a low baying or howling. William shook his head, wondering if it had been in his head or not as he drifted off to sleep.

A few days later it was the last meeting of the dueling club that semester. William was excited, after his stumbling around campus the other night he realized that he should just do what everyone seemed to be telling him to do and give Nick some time. Clearly there was nothing that could really be done to help him and all William could do was attempt to be there for his friend when his friend was ready to let him be.

Still, he had been hoping that Nick would show up to the last meeting of the semester. As expected when William had arrived, the room had been arranged around the central circle like it had been the previous year. Most of the students were casually sitting around drinking butterbeer, eating sandwiches, and lounging about. Hobbes, and Rosenberger were for once not sitting next to each other, and William wondered if they had already agreed to duel each other rather than risk the chance of fighting a 'werewolf'. William frowned as he got a butterbeer and settled down on one of the chairs around the room.

The sixth graders that had been attending the club finally arrived, Tall Elk divided them into teams and then rang in the new year with the sixth grade group fight. William smiled, there were six of them this year and he was hoping to see a very intense fight but instead they only flung hexes at each other until their shield walls were burst apart and they then all would crumple under one of the random hexes that came through after that. The duel ended with one sixth grader still standing while wobbling under the jelly-legs curse.

Next came the duel between Hobbes and Rosenberger, the two came forward and saluted each other then took their stances both choosing a different one from the other. Hobbes was in the second form they had learned, instead of being in the partial sitting position of the first stance you brought your back, close and almost flush with your front leg which gave you a smaller profile but also made it much harder to maneuver. Rosenberger on the other hand had gone with the fourth stance, she seemed to be crouched down like a baseball player with her wand carefully cocked on her side. William could tell that the older students were obviously impressed, and Clark was smiling from her position on the side of the field. She had explained at later sessions that while all five forms were accepted in dueling, you rarely saw people use more than the first one because it was the most common and offered a very solid over all performance. William watched as Tall Elk watched neutrally before telling them to begin.

Both opened up with a standard back and forth of spells, trying to disable or disarm the other with the standard spells that they had been drilled upon by Clark. Each began to circle the other as they threw up their shield charms. Already the problems with their chosen forms were becoming highlighted. Hobbes was having trouble stepping around the circle, while Rosenberger was more often than not dodging and reseting her stance than counter-attacking. Eventually Hobbes took his chance standing still while Rosenberger jumped away from one of his spells, springing up in a smooth jump from her ready position only to suddenly get slammed hard with a jelly legs curse so that when she tried to right herself she fell over entirely. The crowd clapped, but William could see a slight look of disappointment on Clark's face to see one of her students be taken down with such a simple spell.

Without another seventh grader to duel William was unsure if he'd have to fight one of the other seventh graders or get to duel at all. As he stood up, Clark looked over at Tall Elk and the old teacher turned to the assembled eighth graders and asked, "Would anyone like to volunteer to duel with Mr. Fraser?"

The group hesitated for a brief moment, most of them had paired off already for their big chance to spar with each other. But then one of the older students stepped forward, a few of the unpaired students breathed a sigh of relief as the lean wiry student stepped forward and shook their lengthening auburn hair about. The young man gave a wolfish smile and said, "I think it would be fun."

William was unfamiliar with the other student, but he saw that Clark had a very amused look on her face and she nodded her head at Tall Elk as William stepped into the ring. The older boy swaggered into the ring and offered a paltry salute to William. William returned with a crisp and clean salute to the older student. The older boy took the first position, settling into the well respected and world renowned standard of dueling stances. William stretched his arms out a little before settling into the third form, which was just to stand a little crouched with your feet a little bit farther than shoulder width apart and your wand carefully tapping on your side. William had found that it felt the most comfortable to his fighting style within the past semester, he preferred quick stable movement, and an ability to counter attack when he had the chance. William knew that he wanted to play to his strengths in this duel since he had been counting on knowing at least a little something about his opponent in this duel. All William knew before Tall Elk told them to begin was that he could see Clark smiling at his choice of stance, the third was her favored form as well.

As soon as Tall Elk called out, "Begin!" The older student let out a garbled yell, but William recognized the spell and without even thinking he moved forward while shouting his shield charm. There was a beautiful crash of light, and the older student looked simply surprised. William called out a quick hex and then ducked to the right as quickly as he could. The older student caught the hex with a shield spell but then quickly shuffled to reorient himself to his target once more calling out the same disarming spell he had used before.

William ducked and rolled away calling out a quick but simple tripping hex on the older student. As he shuffled to reorient himself again he fell over. The problems of the first form rested in a reliance on stable balance and a strong defense that allowed for quick counter attacks and opportunistic assaults. William realized though by the simple surprise from the older student, that he chose the form because it was expected of him. His dueling relied on the quick overwhelming disarm he used at the beginning, faster than most people would be expected but William was used to bullies who took cheap shots and sucker punches. William let loose several jinxes one after the other as he zig zagged to and past the eighth grader who was still struggling for balance. William skidded to a halt at the edge of the circle and dropped to a knee as the older boy wobbled and called out another spell aimed for William's chest but hitting the magical barrier behind him. William launched up in a leap as another shot smashed into the ground and let loose his own disarming spell which connected with the older student. As William landed and breathed a sigh of relief hoping he had bested the boy at his own game he suddenly realized that he still didn't have the hang of the more advanced spell as the boy then called out, "_Expelliarmus!_" With his wand held in a white knuckle grip in his hand. William moved to swing his hand up for a shield charm but just wasn't fast enough, his wand arm got hit and his wand went spinning out of his hand and into the ground. The duel was called over, and the older boy wiped sweat off his brow.

William picked up his wand and they saluted in unison, while William was somewhat upset that he had lost the match, he suddenly realized that when he saluted the older boy actually made eye contact and nodded as opposed to the very informal and off the cuff salute of before. They left the circle and both collapsed down on opposite benches, people patting them on the back and handing them food and butterbeer. William smiled leaning his head back against the cool stone.

Clark settled down next to him and said, "Quite impressive there squirt."

William laughed a bit, and said, "Was it?"

Clark nodded, "He's considered the best duelist in his grade, but he does it with quick spells and a bit of finesse rather than good strategy like you have." She smiled, "Shame you didn't win but that's more because of inexperience than anything else Fraser." She ruffled his hair and then said, "You've got the makings of a fine duelist Fraser, you should be proud."

William nodded, "Yeah, I know, but I wish that Nick had been here."

Clark shrugged, "I'm sure he'll sort things out soon, Tall Elk seems to think he'll be ok. You probably shouldn't worry, if Tall Elk's not worried you definitely shouldn't be."

"Really?" William asked staring up at the older girl.

"Tall Elk is one of the better wizards around William and he knows about things like this," Clark explains, "If he doesn't consider something worth worrying over, you probably shouldn't."

William nodded, "I guess."

The duels had been passing relatively quickly now. They were all mostly just quick shots of various spells, a little bit of footwork and then eventually one hex won out over another and down went one of the duelists. "Tall Elk tells me," Clark explained, "That the way I duel, and the way you duel, cause you seem to duel like me, is more realistic."  
William turned to look at Clark, she was carefully watching every movement and step in the duels, "How do you mean?"

"He says it reminds him of how he trained Marshals to fight," Clark explained in a somewhat far-away voice, her attention actually wrapped up in the duels. "Tall Elk figures it has to do with having actual experience with combat."

William shook his head, "But I don't know anything about..."

Clark had broken her attention to look squarely at him, "William, it's no secret that there's a pair of assholes who shoot spells at you and bully you. It's why Tall Elk invited you to the club in the first place."

William nodded, "I guess." He then paused and stared up at Clark, "But wait how do you know about..."

She smiled patted him on the head, "Maybe I'll tell you later, I'm up." As they had been watching the fights William had only just barely noticed that it had progressed to the senior duels. Clark was the last one, last year she had dueled one of the people in the year ahead of her, this time it was one of her fellow seniors who had the pleasure. As she approached the ring, she cracked her neck and took off her thick leather dueling jacket and dropped it down on the ground next to the circle as she stepped in. Her opponent was in full dueling uniform, he was a tall and muscular young man with chiseled features and slick dark black hair. The pair saluted and then fell into their stances, Clark's opponent fell into the second form while Clark settled into the third.

They began to slowly circle each other, William knew that the older students sparred several times a week which meant they were even more familiar with each other than anyone else. Each of them was slowly watching the other for a change, Clark's opponent then slipped from the second form to the first as he began to shuffle and maneuver about the ring. Clark stayed carefully pacing through the ring in her usual stance, waiting and watching. As her opponent made another side step she launched her assault. Clark suddenly swung low and down rolling across the ground as she called out at least one spell and then followed up with a string of unspoken jinxes. The young man immediately started blocking them though a few boils burst across his thighs, and he was suddenly laughing uncontrollably. As Clark moved about him, the young man waved his wand over himself and the laughing stopped, as he hurled a ball of light toward Clark. She waved her wand in a broad arc and the ball rebounded into the ward that encircled the dueling pair. As the young man called out another set of spells, Clark rushed forward calling forth a spell as she did. The air around her become a solid block of silver like a massive wedge as she ran headlong into the barrage of spells. Her opponent panicked as he looked for an exit, suddenly Clark dropped her shield and let out a stunner at point blank range. Suddenly the older boy went flying and Clark shouted a disarming spell and a cushioning spell causing her opponent's wand to fly into her hand while his body landed on an invisible cushion. The whole dueling club burst into cheers, as Tall Elk offered a small clap. After that last duel, the party quickly died down as Tall Elk left, and students slowly made their way out discussing their upcoming mid-terms and their plans for the winter break.

William eventually left alone, realizing that he would just have to accept that his best friend was no longer his best friend. William clambered up the stairs, wrapping himself up in the thick black cloak he had recovered a few nights ago. William marched through the snow, thinking about his upcoming midterms, he was fairly certain that he would do fine in them perhaps a little better than he had on his finals last year. Still the thought that he had been able to apply himself to his classes more this semester made him frown because he had done it at the expense of losing a good friend, and losing track of his roommate. William sighed as he marched across the campus, the semester was practically over, and he was practically alone.


	12. Christmas and Kilts

A few days later William was sitting in the front seat of his mother's car as they made their way down Inverness Lane. William couldn't help but smile as he watched the trees glide by, glistening in the frost of the early winter weather. A light coating of snow covered the ground throughout the neighborhood and a few children, several years younger than William were having a quick snowball fight.

As they pulled up into the driveway, William realized that the local neighborhood kids weren't the only ones having a snowball fight. At the fraternity house next store, the snow had been cleared away and piled into fortifications at the edges of the yard. The young collegiate men were arranged across the snow forts, laughing and yelling as they tossed snowballs at each other. William also noticed the large metal kegs that rested on at least one side of the field, the older guys filling up plastic cups holding snow balls in their opposite hands. William's mother sighed as she stepped out of the car, glaring across the yard at the fraternity, though they only seemed to smile and wave. William noticed that at least one of them when spotting his mother tossed the plastic cup away faster than William thought possible, it landed somewhere over the man-made snow bank and far out of sight.

As William grabbed his luggage out of the trunk of the car, he also noticed that his sister was sitting on the porch with someone he didn't really recognize. William took Asimov's cage out, the gray owl merely readjusted himself as William made his way up to the porch, dragging his trunk behind him. As he stepped up on to the porch his sister said, "Back from school, squirt?"

William nodded and replied, "Yeah..."

But before he could say anything else, the girl next to his sister burst, "Is that an owl?"

"Uhm," William said, unsure of what he could possibly say as an explanation to why he had an owl, but then concluded the less said the better, "Yes." Then as his sister's friend was about to ask another question, he said quickly, "I have to go unpack." William then turned and left.

Behind him, he could hear his sister's friend giggling, and his sister explaining that William was a little different, and that he went to a school for eccentric geniuses. The other girl just giggled and asked a few more questions, but by the time the conversation was already dying down William had clambered up the stairs to his room.

As he flipped on the light, William couldn't help but blink several times. After months of candle light, and the eerie ambiance of magical illumination, muggle electric bulbs were somewhat intense. His room was as he had left it when he departed in the summer, his computer had sat collecting dust, and his bed still made. William did notice that a few of the clothes he had left strewn about in the last few days of summer had been picked up and probably cleaned and put away by his mother.

William then sat Asimov's cage down in the corner and opened it, the great owl stirred and then flapped out landing atop William's book case where it then rearranged itself to once more return to sleep, his traditional resting spot in the Fraser home. William then slowly unpacked everything else, his robes were tucked away into his drawers, books were put onto his bookshelf, and his cauldron was shoved into the closet. William then removed his quodpot horn which he rested on his desk, and finally the large black cloak that he had found while exploring the school grounds. He still was unsure how to feel about the item, it had a smooth sheen to it, and William was fairly certain that it had some sort of enchantment on it though what he didn't know. William hung it up on the back of his bedroom door and it draped over the majority of it, the cloak also had a few tattered old symbols stitched into it, but they were faded and old. William then finally removed a final item, a wrapped box that Franklin Perry had handed him toward the end of the semester that was addressed to his sister and was apparently a Christmas gift. William shook his head as he set it down on his desk, and then sat down on his bed, it was going to be a long winter break, he could just feel it.

The next few days passed at an agonizing pace to William. The sudden shock of being unable to perform magical spells was worse than last year. Within a few days, William found himself thumbing through his textbooks and performing wand drills at his desk wondering what he could do to pass the time. At first he had tried to catch up on the muggle world through the internet but William suddenly found that that didn't exactly interest him. Even over the past few months there were dozens of new movies, video games, and television shows that had become popular not to mention big news events and the like which were already slowly changing the face of the muggle world from when he had started school last year. As he sat there scrolling through webpages that didn't really interest him, William couldn't help but realize that as much as he didn't know about the muggle world he knew even less about the wizarding world.

William had been a wizard for over a year, and he had only just encountered his first ghost. William had read about ghosts in a few textbooks so it's not like the specter had truly been mystifying or inspired any curiosity in him but William didn't know exactly what the spirit was when he had first met it. He also, despite his readings on werewolves didn't fully understand what the wizarding world had against them, or exactly what the legal position of his friend was as a werewolf. William sighed, but the wizarding world didn't have an internet, there was no way to quickly learn the information he wanted to know not without going to a wizarding bookstore or library. William wrote himself a note, to start digging into the wizarding world when he returned to school, for the mean time he would just have to make due in the muggle world.

After writing the note, William made his way downstairs to discover that Elizabeth and her friend were busy doing something in the kitchen. The high school had just finished up the semester the previous day, and his parents were still busy most days dealing with the university's final exam period. This translated to apparently her sister hanging out at the house whenever she wasn't undergoing the harrowing journey that was part-time work in the muggle food service industry. William had met her friend a few times since he returned home, her name was Nicole, and William was not really sure what to make of her, especially since she had already pegged William as a weird little boy.

William crept into the kitchen, hoping he could just get something to drink without having to talk to his sister or her friend. The pair of them were standing by the window watching something going on next door.

"Do you think we could get over there?" Nicole asked.

"I don't know," Elizabeth responded, "They're college guys."

"Exactly," Nicole replied. She stepped up onto her toes and leaned on the kitchen counter to look at something that was going on on the neighbors back porch. "I just can't believe they're all hanging out there without their shirts on in this weather."

William skirted around the pair as he went and grabbed a glass. As he was taking it down from the cabinet though Elizabeth suddenly said, "William what are you doing here?"

"Uh," He replied as he then poured himself a glass of cider, "I'm getting something to drink?"

Elizabeth made a face, and Nicole's eyes just settled carefully on him watching William in a way that could only be described as making him uncomfortable. "Whatever," She then paused and asked, "Do you know when Mom or Dad are going to be home?"

William shrugged as he put the jug of cider back in the fridge and said, "Not a clue." He then slipped past the pair of girls and out of the kitchen. As he left though, William turned to see that Nicole was still watching him carefully, as if any minute William was going to explode or the like. He didn't know exactly what about it made him uncomfortable but it made William wonder what she might know or be thinking. William shook his head as he came back into his room, it was probably nothing.

The countdown to Christmas began as soon as the University's finals were over. William was happy that this year only his father's family was coming, it meant that while his mother was still intensely going over the house with a fine toothed comb looking for anything out of place she was doing it in a much more relaxed manner. Every so often William would be drafted into assisting with the house hold chores, and it was as he scrubbed tiles, vacuumed carpets, and dusted every nook and cranny in the house that he truly started to miss magic. There was no amount of elbow grease that could truly replace blasting a patch of ground with a cleaning charm. William was not particularly good with the cleaning charm, but he was better with magic than he was with a sponge and bucket of soapy water.

The first to arrive was his Uncle George. It was a quiet snow laden morning when William spotted the sports car roar up Inverness Lane, a different vehicle than the one his uncle had been driving a year ago. William moved down the stairs swiftly and opened the door as his uncle slid casually out of the car in a finely tailored suit. George was tall like William's father but younger with an air of vitality about him. George gave William an energetic wave, as he called out, "Hullo there William, mind helping me with some of this stuff?" With a wave of his other hand the car trunk popped open. For a brief moment William imagined that it had happened with magic before spotting the small remote in his uncle's hand. William nodded and crossed the snow covered lawn to show his assent, moving toward the back of the car as he did so.

George came around the back and as he grabbed one of the suitcases and William gathered up the other, he asked, "So how's the semester been William?"

William shrugged, "It's been alright."

His uncle nodded, and then said, "Classes are going alright?"

William nodded, "Yeah, classes are fine."

George closed the trunk and the pair started crossing the lawn, George then asked, "So what's got you so down?"

William paused unaware just how soft and downturn his voice had sounded until that moment, "Just been having some trouble with my friends this semester, that's all."

"Ah," George said with a smile, "I know what that can be like." He then laughed and said, "You'll all get over it, besides the real fights won't start for a few more years."

William looked up slyly at his uncle, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

George gave a wry smile back at his nephew and then answered with a light hearted edge to his words, "William, whatever your friends might be arguing about now might seem important but in another year or so you'll be having arguments over women. And those William can get downright dangerous." He then laughed as they walked into the house closing the door behind them and shutting away the cold and semi-serious air of their conversation.

As soon as his Uncle stepped into the house there was a wide ring of hellos, and how have you beens from his parents and older sister. Soon enough, everyone was settled in the living room with the news on a low volume with various conversations starting and ending as they all just took the moment to relax. Elizabeth was laying down next to the tree, which already had a variety of boxes and bags arranged around it roughly split by person. William could tell though that his sister was directly eying the box William had placed there a few nights ago. It was wrapped in a distinct set of wrapping paper, it had a strange shimmering quality to it and almost seemed to catch your eye when you just tried to look at all the presents arranged. Attached to it was a smooth white piece of paper with an elegant scrawl across it that read, 'To Elizabeth, From Franklin', William was surprised by just how simple the older boy had made the note considering his penchant for the dramatic and there was still the question of exactly what he had sent her.

William was somewhat surprised when they all broke for a light lunch of sandwiches and salad. Time was passing so smoothly for the first time since he arrived home and he wasn't really doing much of anything at all. After lunch, his grandparents arrived which resulted in another rapid exchange of greetings and quick catch up. William hadn't realized it at first but as the conversation turned to his sister and how she was doing at school, William started to feel very tense. He wasn't entirely sure what his cover story should be, what subjects would a normal seventh grader be taking, and what subjects was he supposed to be good with. William took a deep shuddering breath as he tried to think how Transfiguration and Potions compared to Muggle school subjects.

Luckily though, his grandfather apparently had no interest in knowing how he was doing in school, before he even asked how the semester had gone, his grandfather asked, "How's your right hook coming along, William?"

William breathed a sudden sigh of relief as he replied, "Pretty good, Grandpa."

"Good good," his grandfather then cracked a wide smile, "Put up your mitts show us all how you're looking."

William gulped, and he could see his mother looking somewhat concerned, though his sister was clearly trying to stifle in laughter as William stood up and then brought up his 'guard' just like his grandfather had shown him last year. With his hands raised he let his feet settle into his favored dueling stance, and then tried to keep his body moving with that slight sway he watched Clark use before a duel. Dueling and boxing couldn't be that different, could they?  
His grandfather had stood up and moved around him, and with a wide smile said, "Ah, you're looking pretty good William. That sway is a little bit too much but you're definitely going to be a great boxer when you fill out a little." Grandpa Fraser then set up his own stance, which was a little firmer though his arms were floating a bit more, "Just like I was!"

Grandma Fraser then laughed a little, and with her laughter Elizabeth could no longer control herself and also burst into a fit of giggles. Meanwhile William's mother had gone to go get a camera so she could take a shot of the two 'fighting men'. Soon enough a round of family photos were being taken in a variety of positions and with plenty of laughter and good natured fun. When dinner time arrived the family decided to go out to eat as the next few days would involve plenty of cooking. Dinner in the restaurant had passed in a bout of various conversations about all manner of things going on and William was able to relax as the spotlight wasn't put on him at any particular point.

When William had gotten home that evening and returned to his room he found two owls sitting on his bookcase. Asimov was standing proud and tall next to the other smaller brown owl. When he walked in the smaller owl hooted and flew over to William landing atop his computer monitor. William winced a little as the owl's talons dug a bit into the plastic of the monitor casing, it then reached out with a note for him.

William opened up the rolled up piece of parchment to find a letter from Chris. Apparently Chris was going to be spending this Christmas with muggle relatives and he much like William was trying to figure out what lies to concoct about what classes they were taking and what their school was like. William laughed, and then wrote a quick response to his roommate saying that he was just as unsure of what to tell muggle relatives but that when they got back to school they'd have to sit down and hash it out. After all, he would only be able to ride out his grandfather's excitement over him being a boxer for so long before it would start to get obvious that he never talked about his school subjects. He handed the response off to the small brown owl and it hooted before taking it and then flying out his open window. Asimov ruffled himself as he watched the other bird flap away, and then the large owl let out a low hoot before also taking flight to go out on a late night hunt. William partially shut the window leaving enough space that early in the morning his owl would be able to nudge the window open but so that not much snow or cold wind would get in.

Christmas, the main event was largely quiet. Last year had been a year of big gifts and lots of discussion, with this year being relatively toned down in terms of gift giving. Mostly the family exchanged various sets of new clothing, a book or two, and a few knick knacks and the like. William was actually quite pleased with the clothing he had received as the majority of it was winter wear which in the cold winters up at Salem William was definitely in need of. Just like last year in one of the books his parents had given him was a note that told him there were another gift that would have to wait till after his relatives had gone, most likely because it involved magic. It was for that reason that he was somewhat nervous when his sister did open up her gift from Franklin Perry, William hadn't thought to wonder what the pureblood boy might have sent as a gift or how magical it might be. Luckily, the gift was not obviously magical but it definitely caused a tad bit of a stir.

Elizabeth had carefully removed the shimmering magical wrapping paper, and then removed the smooth navy blue box in which was a beautiful silver necklace that seemed to catch the light around the room and playfully reflect it about at the center of the necklace was a perfectly set gem that seemed to be a very dark sapphire. "Wow," Elizabeth had murmured as she gently slipped the necklace around her own neck and fastened it with ease.

"Ooo boy," Grandma Fraser said with a low whistle, "Some young boy really fancies you."

Soon enough the whole family was commenting on how the person who sent that must be really important, and Elizabeth's entire face became fairly flushed. Luckily because of the commotion over the gift no one else besides William noticed the note within the box, that Elizabeth carefully plucked up and slipped into the pocket of her pajama pants.

After their traditional late breakfast, William returned to his own room, where there was another carefully wrapped book sitting on his desk. He opened up the wrapping paper to discover that his mother had apparently purchased him a book about potion making, a note within the book mentioned that she had purchased it after he mentioned how much he had been enjoying potions in several of the letters. William flipped through the tome and discovered that it was definitely beyond what he was expected to know in school for at least a few years but William was also happy to note that one of the last potions it detailed was the Wolfsbane potion which he had already brewed under the guidance of Franklin Perry. As William examined few of the other potions in the book he decided that in his down time he would have to give them a try.

As he flipped through the pages William was surprised when there was a knock at his door, when he turned he saw his sister standing there. She casually walked in and then said, "So what does Franklin mean in this note?" She then handed him the smooth piece of parchment.

William unfurled it and glossed over most of the note since it seemed to be about how much Franklin liked his sister, and then read his explanation of the necklace itself. William's eyebrows shot up when he read aloud the purpose of the necklace, "It protects you from muggle-repelling charms."

"Yeah," His sister replied, "But what does that mean?"

"Well," William said as he tried to explain, "Lots of places in the wizarding world have spells on them to keep normal people away."

"Why?" Her sister said, "I've gone around that Dragon's Plaza place, what's the big deal?"

William shrugged, "I'm not really sure. I don't get it." William handed the parchment back to Elizabeth with a casual shrug.

She sighed, "Whatever, I figure he'll explain it better whenever I see him again." She shook her head, then stood up, "See you later." William nodded as his sister walked off.

William shook his head as he tried to comprehend why Franklin would give his sister a necklace that lets her bypass muggle repelling charms unless he wanted to take her some place that had them.

As William sat there, he suddenly realized, that Salem probably had muggle-repelling charms. William then grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scrabbled a note asking how the school quidditch team was doing, and then signed it. William woke up Asimov, and the large owl carefully eyed the note before hooting at it, and taking it. William then said, "Take it to Sarah, Asimov." The owl nodded then took flight zooming through the opening in William's window.

A few hours later Asimov returned with a reply. The first paragraph or two was Sarah saying how William really shouldn't just send people owls on christmas about something like quidditch. She also admonished him for not going to any of the quidditch matches this semester, after all she had shown up to one or two of the quodpot games. Finally though, she launched into a long explanation of how the team was doing. She also accompanied it with an analysis of what could happen in the team's last few games before the playoff series began, who Sarah expected to get in and how Salem could do against them. Ultimately though the answer was obvious, Salem was definitely pulling ahead in quidditch and could probably make the final game with just a little bit of luck. William sighed, Franklin was captain of the quidditch team and was probably planning on trying to smuggle his sister in to watch the final game at the end of the year.

Christmas passed easily once William had finally discovered the purpose of Elizabeth's gift from Franklin, though he chose not to announce his thoughts about the gift to anyone. It seemed as soon as his extended family had arrived they were gone. Their departure was followed by a shorter much less agonizing post-family gathering clean up, and before William realized it the new year was almost upon them.

Like every year William's family was going to the university's New Year's party, and that day everyone was getting ready. It was as William was getting dressed that he realized something quite important. His muggle formal wear was drastically out of date with the amount he had grown since he had last worn it. His pants were tight and didn't even reach his ankles all the way down, and his shirts all barely fit him. With the hours till the party being narrow and most stores being closed William's father suggested he try on the kilt. William gulped as he found that it still fit quite nicely and appropriately. William sighed, with that and one of the nicer sweaters his grandmother had given him this year he was wearing a strange but still more than acceptable set of formal wear for any party. Still William thought as he got into the family car for the brief ride over, it was bad enough that he felt very strange about his place at the muggle party but adding a kilt on top of it and he would stick out like a sore thumb.

William sighed as they arrived and he clambered up the steps to the main university building, a large brick building with ivy along the sides of it that carefully reminded him of Salem's main academic building. As he walked in alongside his family, several people gave him interested and bemused looks for the kilt that he was wearing. William shook his head, he might as well have just worn a set of his school robes. As soon as they were within the party proper, William slunk away from his family at the earliest possible convenience. For a brief moment William thought about trying to follow his sister, but then thought better of it. There was no reason to draw attention to himself by trying to hang around high school students who would probably think he was weird no matter what he did.

Finally much like the previous year, William found himself moving about the edges of the party popping into various rooms where people were discussing all manner of topics grabbing various finger foods as he went and carefully avoiding any conversation or attention. As William skirted about the party he bumped directly into a girl with red frizzy hair in a smooth dress. William was surprised when the girl smiled broadly at him, and as he fixed his glasses back on properly he realized that it was Megan O'Rourke.

"William!" She half-shouted, "You are here!"

William coughed and replied, "Yep, I am."

Megan smiled and then paused when she saw he was wearing his kilt, "Are you wearing a dress?"

"No," William replied, "It's my kilt. It's the only thing I had that fits." He then sighed, realizing that that was probably not the smartest thing to say.

"Really?" Megan replied.

Before she could create some plausible reason why William should have a pair of suit pants he said, "Yeah, crazy I know but just what happens." He gulped, wishing for one moment that he could explain that at his school everyone wore robes because they were all wizards. Sometimes an ability to explain the magical world to people would make everything ten times easier than trying to keep it a secret.

She then smirked and asked, "So what are you wearing underneath it?" Megan giggled a little as she looked directly at it.

"Underwear?" William replied a little uncomfortably.

"Oh," Megan said with a hint of surprise to her voice, "I just thought that...never mind."

William could only arch an eyebrow in surprise as Megan suddenly started walking and he found himself falling into step with her. She was wearing a modest dress much like she had last year, skirting the line between young girl and young woman. "So uh," He said to break the silence, "How have you been?"

She shrugged as they made their way into a stairwell, "I'm alright, Eric's laid off a little, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he starts making fun of my D&D group."

"D&D?" William asked as the pair mounted the steps, pausing at the landing to look out the window.

"Dungeons and Dragons, I told you about it in the letter," She said with a slightly exasperated groan.

"Oh right," William replied, the game where she pretended she could cast magical spells. William stared out at the snow covered landscape of the campus, sparse trees, and large brick buildings dominated the majority of it. While gazing out across the campus all William could think was that it looked so much like Salem.

Megan was standing beside him, gazing through the frosted window pane, she then turned and asked, "What are you looking at?"

William shook himself a little as he was broken from his reverie, "I was thinking about my school."

"Oh," Megan responded then as she looked out on the university where their parents worked she asked, "Does it look like this?"

William shrugged as he stared across the almost barren landscape of the university. He then shook his head, "Sort of," he explained, "My school just has, this, I don't know, something is different that's all."

Megan nodded as she looked out across the campus, "What's it like, going to a boarding school?"

William smiled for a brief moment, "It's different but kind of cool. I don't know it's not like being home. I feel like I have more freedom but at the same time, curfew's are stricter and rules in general are just..." William finally shrugged, "It's just too hard to explain I guess."

Megan nodded carefully at his words and then said, "That's pretty cool. Sometimes I wish I didn't go to school here."

William bit his lip and then said, "It's not all good. My school's kind of weird, so..." He shrugged. As William stood there and Megan stood next to him they stared out at the campus that looked like Salem and wasn't. William found his hand extending to his wand, tucked on the inside of his kilt, and he wished for nothing more than the ability to pull it out and just perform a simple spell. As always, William could do nothing to ease the awkward isolation of living amongst muggles, he was powerless to explain to his best friend from elementary school any of the wonders he had seen. If he did, she'd forget them within the hour and William could very well be expelled and forget it all too. William sighed and then asked her about life at home, the people they had known in elementary school and everything else.

The conversation meandered through their shared memories for quite some time. Megan talked about the people William did and didn't know that she heard about through the middle school rumor mill, and slowly forgot that William went to a different school. William however, never could seem to shake the fact that after only a year and a half of being wizard he was already clearly an outsider in the muggle world. There was no going back once you entered the magical realm, only moving forward. William had to accept that fact and be prepared for the next few years, and the brief periods he would have to endure in the muggle world. Still as the university bell tolled midnight, William tried to push these thoughts away from his mind, and focus instead on being with his best friend again, and on merely enjoying one of his few nights in the muggle world.


	13. The Rigors of Academia

Within the week William was back on the train to Salem without having to be concerned with pretending to be a muggle or not. After only a few minutes on the train he had switched into his robes, and then moved up the train keeping an eye out for open compartments and any of his friends. As he moved into another car he suddenly heard someone call out the purple nurple spell, William had his wand out in a flash but suddenly realized that no one had cast it at him, up the hall there were a few upperclassmen with their wands out laughing. William shook his head, he couldn't believe it, people were actually starting to use Henry's spell.

William made his way down the car, shaking his head as he went. It was really only a matter of time, William had known, before someone had mimicked the spell but it still caught William by surprise. As he moved through the compartments, he listened in on other students conversations amongst a few of the older students he could hear people discussing howling. William tensed, every time he heard someone mention it William would be ready to have his wand out but they were apparently not talking about Nick.

After a solid ten minutes of searching William nearly smashed face first into Sarah when her light blond head popped out of a compartment. "Look where you're going," she said with a false sense of anger.

William laughed a little and then said, "Hey, I've been wondering where everyone was."

"Well," Sarah replied, "It's just me and Alexandria in here." She then stepped back into the compartment, and William followed her.

As he sat down with a space between him and Alexandria who was looking out at the blankets of snow passing by the window, William asked, "Haven't seen Chris or Nick?"

Sarah shook her head, "Well I saw Chris not too long ago but he was with some people I didn't know, mostly other quodpot fans, the finals are coming up for the national league so you know how that is."

William nodded, his roommate's quodpot fervor had come to a boil at this time last year too, then William frowned, "But you haven't seen Nick at all either?"

"Nope," Sarah said with a shake of her, "At first I figured that he had to be with you but well then again..." The girl then just shrugged casually.

William raised his eyebrows, "Then again what?"

Sarah didn't look at William when she said, "Well..." She coughed, and avoided William's eyes as he tried to look at her.

Alexandria let out a deep sigh, "Really? Must it be spelled out for you William?"

William turned to Alexandria, surprised that the small girl was actually awake more than anything, "What do you mean?"

She tossed her long dark hair away from her face, and then rolled her deep brown eyes, "Nick's been distant from everyone. It really shouldn't be a surprise that no one's seen him."

"Well he has to be somewhere on the train," William explained.

Alexandria let out a quick little laugh, and then said, "Not necessarily, it's entirely possible the school just let him be apparated or portkeyed in by the government. Especially given how so many parents have been complaining."

William's eyes went wide, "Really?"

Sarah then shook her head, "William haven't you been reading any of the papers?"

"What, no, why," William sputtered as he looked between the two roommates.

Alexandria sighed and then extended him a thick folded up bundle of parchment. William quickly found himself unfurling the large bundle to discover that it was that day's copy of _The Intelligencer_, he had never actually held the paper in his hands before though he had seen a few older students reading it in the morning before. One of the leading stories was about parents up in arms about 'The Salem Werewolf'.

Alexandria shook her head, "I'm just waiting for when one of the parents openly admits their child is using the caverns and they're afraid the werewolf might be down there."

"They're hiding him in the tunnels?" William suddenly found himself asking.

Alexandria laughed, "Well, no one's really sure but I've heard people talking about a Howling Hall. So maybe it's just a name, maybe it's where they're keeping him on the full moon."

William sighed, he began to flip through the paper, when he got to the opinion section it was covered in a debate about werewolf rights and the broader repercussions that the 'situation at Salem' could have on other beings in the country. William shook his head as he nearly dropped the paper, "I had no idea it had gotten so..."

Alexandria slipped her copy out of his hand while Sarah replied, "Yeah, and Nick's probably not reacting to it very well."

William shook his head, "He won't even talk to me anymore."

Sarah nodded, "Yeah, I barely saw him at all last semester and I don't expect that to really change."

William nodded, "Yeah, I guess not." He shook his head, slowly their compartment fell to silence, and then slowly moved on toward what they could expect from the second half of the seventh grade, trying to push away the thoughts conjured by the paper that sat delicately folded in Alexandria's lap.

As the days passed the conversation on the train ride quickly became a distant memory for William as the students were once more thrown back into the deep end of the magical world. Papers, exams, and all manner of work were already starting to pile up as William once more found himself returning to the library on a fairly regular basis. William was making his way out of his dark secluded corner one evening, and as he passed by one of the larger common areas that were less lax regarding the sound of the students involved he spotted the smooth spiraling purple bolt that indicated that someone was going to be purple nurpled.

William could only shake his head as he moved along the edges of the library. Apparently the start of the semester was an explosion of new hexes being traded about and the purple nurple hex had become one of the most popular within just a few days. William really could not figure out why it was such a popular spell though he figured that the fact that it didn't really do much, especially when casted in light fun like most people seemed to be using it, was part of it.

However, in continuous use, it could become quite bothersome William had learned, and was reminded of as he stepped out of the library. As William moved across the small courtyard in front of the library, a few books critiquing or commenting on wizarding society beneath his arms, William heard Henry's voice call up the spell loud and clear. The purple bolt shot out across the courtyard swiftly, moving in a tight corkscrew, a movement that showed the stark contrast between Henry's casting of it and the average person whose spell moved lazily and spiraled almost humorously across the distance between caster and victim. With the books in his hand, William just wasn't fast enough to get his wand up in time, and suddenly it felt like someone had part of his chest in a tight clamp and was just twisting it. William fought back a yelp as he let his books drop, and he suddenly yanked out his wand and concentrated hard trying to think of a spell but as he looked across the courtyard all he could really see was Henry's retreating back. William sighed, as usual Henry had performed a simple hit and run, the bully wasn't always going to stand around and taunt William since he knew he couldn't win in a fight against a duelist.

William rubbed his chest, and looked into his robe where he could already see the bruise forming on his chest with several other smaller bruises. William slowly gathered up the rest of his books as he made his way back to the dormitory. When he sat down on his bed back in Corey Hall, Chris who was busily doing some work at his desk asked, "Another long night in the library?"

William nodded, "It just feels like it never ends."

Chris nodded and turned a little, "I know man, but they do this like at the start of every semester, it'll get easier in a few weeks."

"Yeah," William replied, "I hope so."

Chris then asked, "So, have you given any more thought to like, the muggle classes?"

William nodded as he propped himself up, "Well I mean, I figure Potions is like chemistry or whatever science would make sense for people our age."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, do you think Charms would be good for like English or something?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, you're better at me then Charms do you think people could believe you read a lot of books."

Chris groaned, "I hadn't even thought about that, I mean I don't really read constantly but I don't know, is it that weird that I could be good at like...whatever it is Muggles do in like middle school English."

William laughed, "I don't know, I could ask my sister I guess but we might as well go with it since I don't know where else we would fit it."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, I guess you should ask your sister." Chris then shook his head, "I never liked muggle school, I couldn't believe all those years that my mom made me go knowing that I'd eventually be coming here to study things no one would even believe."

William gave a weary nod as he stood and began to undress for bed, "I know what you mean. I saw my best friend from elementary school over break and every time I see her I just..." William shook his head, "It's so hard to pretend that I'm not a wizard."

Chris nodded gesturing to how William was carefully gliding his clothing to a hamper, a hamper that he would eventually be undone and cleaned by house elves or he would make an attempt at a clean and press charm to make sure they were clean to wear in a few days. "I'm sure," Chris said, as he then with a wave of his wand put out the candle that had been sitting on his desk, "Not being allowed to use our wands outside of school is the real killer."

William nodded as he clambered into bed, "At least you live in a house with someone who is magical."

William could hear Chris falling into bed as he responded, "Yeah but we're in a muggle neighborhood, I have to be so careful just to do something like ride a broom, it's ridiculous."

William laughed, "Yeah." William then laughed a little bit more.

After a few minutes his roommate asked, "What's so funny?"

William took a few deep breaths before he said, "We're talking about how it's weird that we can't fly brooms around where we live."

"Oh," Chris replied, then said once more, "Oh," giggling as he said it. The pair of roommates continued laughing until eventually they grew tired and fell asleep.


	14. Looking up at the Moon

Days turned into weeks as William went about the business of being a student at Salem. As Chris had predicted things had eased up after another week of being swamped with quizzes and examinations though while no longer swamped William couldn't help but notice that his schedule of work was consistent with generally one or two classes demanding a paper or exam of him once a week. This meant that a few nights a week William found himself in the library, luckily those nights were generally not when he was at the dueling club.

William saw Nick in the halls of the school, and at the dueling club though his friend was still distant, and shrugged off any attempt to talk to him. A little bit before the full moon, William once more found himself in the potions lab illegally brewing the Wolfsbane potion. William had spoken with Franklin Perry again, and found out where the older boy got his potion supplies delivered from, and was able to procure his own large vials and the more specific ingredients that he needed. William had once more put the beautifully smoking potion into a large bottle with a special stopper to let the blue smoke carefully escape.

This time instead of trying to hand it off to Nick in the halls or after class, he made his way toward his friend's room early in the morning. A trail of blue smoke followed him as he moved in the gray light of pre-dawn before pausing in front of Nick's door. He set down the large bottle, and frowned, he had labeled it '1 week' and hoped that Nick would be willing to take it still there was no way to know. William frowned debating on whether or not to knock and then run away. However, not wanting to run the chance of his friend not accepting the gift, William just left it and hoped Nick would actually accept it.

A few nights later however, Nick hung back after the dueling club. In the club they were still perfecting the proper nuances of dueling learning how to score points on one another and what were acceptable methods for gaining the upper hand in the duel. Clark even promised that by the end of the year they would be taught the all important disarming spell. All of this was on William's mind as he nearly ran into Nick at the top of the stairs out of the stadium.

The taller boy extended the bottle to William. William could tell that it was empty, but as it was not the full moon it was obvious that Nick had not drank it at least not in its recommended dosage. "Stop trying to brew me restricted potions," Was all Nick said as he shoved the bottle into William's chest and then stomped off, the stomping quickly turning into a full run. William shook his head, wishing there was some way that he could help his friend, any way whatsoever. Still, once more all he was left with was the reality that he would have to wait.

A few days later, under the eyes of the full moon Nick was as usual absent from class, though William watched the back corner that he now normally sat in just in case for some reason his friend had been able to make it in. William sighed as he left class, he had been excited at the start of the year because Nick was his only friend in that class meaning that he and Nick would've been able to talk about dueling or whatever without bothering one of their other non-duelist friends. Now however, William couldn't help but realize just how alone as he left class that afternoon.

As he made his way down the hall though, William was also aware of another fact about being alone after class. Henry and Theodore were waiting not far down the hall, at a junction in the halls where there were always plenty of students. William could always spot them because of the way that Theodore's greasy black hair and pale skin stood as a shock in the crowd of passing Salem students. Henry also was generally distinct with the sheer roundness of his physique, and William could already see the other boy's stubby wand curled up in his short sausage fingers.

William took in a deep breath, hand resting on his wand, debating on whether or not he was going to be the one to throw the first spell. As he came toward the junction though the decision was already made for him, Theodore let out a cackling noise that was apparently him saying some sort of incantation and a quick burst of icy blue light came at William. William's wand was out in one fluid motion as was a shield charm to stop the spell. The air in front of the silver light that stood between William and the bullies was filled by a smooth frosty gas, like someone's breath on a very cold day. William marveled at the strange spell, he suddenly felt the tell-tale twist in his chest of the purple nurple, William coughed once, and then Theodore cackled again, the icy blue light caught him head on and he suddenly found himself shivering like a cold bucket of water had been dropped on him. The two bullies laughed as they moved into the crowd.

William shivered as he stepped into a bathroom quickly, he shook his head, and rubbed his hands on his sleeves. As he looked in the mirror William could see that his hair and eyebrows had flecks of ice and the like inside of them, and the upper part of his robes were frosted as well. As he looked in the mirror he suddenly realized that Theodore had used a type of freezing charm that they were taught in defense to use against small pests, or at least a variation of it. William shook his head, and then conjured blue bell flames into the sink while transforming the frost into water with a few waves of his wand. William then leaned over the sink where the warmth of the conjured flames helped to quickly warm him and dry him off so that he could rush off to his last class of the day.

Incidents like this continued, often several times a day. With the constant bullying William was beginning to feel like the past year in the dueling club and meeting his friends had never happened since he was back in an even worse position than when he had started at Salem. William was starting to show up to all of his classes with a limp or pain somewhere in his body that was becoming harder and harder to dismiss. After Defense classes when William would limp out, he couldn't help but feel Tall Elk's eyes on him, boring into his back as William made his way out into the halls where he would inevitably be picked on once more.

After another full week of the bullying, William caught up to Clark outside of one of her classes after he was done for the day. William noticed that older students generally had classes later than the underclassmen probably because of electives though William was never quite sure. The older girl was clearly surprised to see him standing outside of her classroom, and she smiled at several of her friends and waved as she parted from them and walked over to William.

As always, William was generally surprised with how Clark composed herself outside of the dueling club. Her robes were cut in a fashionable style and her red hair sprung freely about her cascading down in tight curls, she smiled at the younger boy and asked, "What's up William?"

William frowned, "I need," William sighed, "I need to know how to get rid of these bullies."

Clark's eyes widened as she looked down at William, "William I thought that..." She then paused unsure of what to say. The older girl took a deep breath and said, "You were never able to get them off your back were you?"

William shook his head, "I was, I thought I was but then, I don't know, Nick doesn't talk to me and my roommate is never around..." William sighed unsure of what else to say.

Clark placed her hand on his shoulder and sighed, "Yeah, Nick's been out of it lately, and I really hope that something happens to snap him out of it." She then shook her head and said, "But there's not much I can tell you about how to get rid of bullies. Beyond what I tell you in the dueling club."

William took a deep breath, and he looked up at Clark, "Is there anything you could do?"

The older girl frowned and then her face suddenly lit up, "Maybe, maybe." She then started walking off and William followed the older girl. Unsure of exactly where they were going.

They moved out into the cold air of the mid-winter afternoon and quickly made their way across the lawns of campus toward one of the other dormitories. William had never actually gone into another dorm besides Corey Hall before. They were all laid out in a similar manner, long corridors of seemingly faceless doors broken up by bathroom doors. Eventually, Clark stopped at a door, and then opened it with a swift turn of the key.

William was a tad surprised to find that the girl's dormitory was full of robes and various clothes spilled about the floor and the beds. Both desks were covered in all manner of books, parchment, vials of perfume and cosmetic potions, along with schedules, letters, and a number of various knick knacks. William also couldn't help but notice the bottle of fire whiskey sitting calmly on Clark's night stand. The older girl walked into the mess as if it weren't there and William could only creep in a few feet unsure if it was safe to sit or move things around so he could move easier.

"Close the door, Fraser," Clark said in her standard dueling command tone. William quickly shut the door and then stared as the older girl closed then opened a trunk. Once the trunk was reopened she practically dived into it, tossing various books in and out of it before finally tearing out a single thin volume. Clark then began to flip through it, before stopping on a certain page, and then she settled down at her desk. William was unsure exactly what was going on, so he just stood patiently next to the older student's desk, as she grabbed parchment, an inkwell, and quill, and began to copy something. She then flipped through the book a few more times, copying one or two more things down before finally handing the piece of fresh parchment to William.

William stared down at the parchment and then looked at Clark, "What is this?"

"That," Clark said gesturing at the parchment, "Is a list of somewhat out of the ordinary spells from this." She said holding up the thin volume. Up close William could see that it was quite old, there were cracks in the leather of the binding, and the pages inside of it were quite yellowed.

William stared at it, "What is that exactly?"

Clark smiled, "A guide to various spells that no one really uses anymore. It's been passed through my family for a few generations since they came over. Most of them are just spells from the old country you know for dealing with things that are over there, some of them are just good spells for various things like there's a spell in here that will salt mutton and another that bakes a potato really well." She shrugged, and then gave a vicious smile, "Of course, some of these spells were added over the years, for doing all sorts of wrong doing. I mean, I'm not going to give you some of the spells in here that I think are clearly dark. But these three, well, they should certainly scare off a few bullies. Just be careful with them, ok?" Clark then smiled again, and then ruffled William's hair.

"Alright," William replied.

"You promise?" She asked quickly.

"Yes, I do promise," William answered unsure of exactly why he had to worry about these spells.

"Good, now get out of her squirt, I have a paper to write," She replied, and William nodded then left the room.

As William looked over the spell list upon the parchment he couldn't help but notice that the incantations were definitely not the latin-based ones he was used to seeing. They seemed somewhat off though he couldn't quite figure out why. Still the spells themselves were strange, and Clark's notes didn't seem to include what their original intention was. The three spells would all be useful though, though as he cut back through the main building to warm up a bit as he traversed campus he was surprised at how quickly he was already putting them to use.

As he cut through the building, he spotted Henry and Theodore prowling through the corridor ahead of him. The pair smirked, and their wands were out quickly, calling out various spells. William gulped and then ducked into a side hallway as opposed to trying to block their hexes. William's wand was in his hand before he even realized it, and he could at least hear the huffing and puffing that meant Henry was rushing up on him. William looked down at the parchment, and then let out the rough unfamiliar incantation for a tripping spell. William dropped down to the ground and tapped it as per the instructions, all of a sudden a line at about shin height burst out from his wand and affixed itself to the walls. Henry bowled right into the line with a cry of several foul words as he crashed right down onto his face.

Meanwhile Theodore had stealthily rounded the corner, though William immediately called out the last spell on his list and a massive gout of bright flames burst out of William's wand. He concentrated hard and the flames abated. Theodore was standing there somewhat aghast unsure at how to respond, his robes were smoking slightly. William stuffed the list into his pocket unsure if he'd have a chance for the last spell as Theodore launched a counter-attack that William caught on a shield charm. William backed up into the other hallway quickly, spotting that Henry was about to get back up he called out the last spell. While the spell hit Henry hard in the back, it didn't bring him flying toward William or anything really, the large boy just continued to clamber back up.

Meanwhile Theodore had launched his assault as he rounded the corner. William recognized the majority of spells from observing them in the forest the previous year, but he was still surprised with how viciously Theodore was using them. Theodore let forth a guttural noise and a black smoke William recognized with a certain fear came curling out of his wand, William felt his leg twitch and then he let loose with the flame spell again before ducking to the right. The gout of bright fire burst with the smoke in a dazzling and strange array of lights, in the meantime William lay down another trip line and backed up. Both Theodore and Henry came bursting across it this time, and when they fell over William just ran through the closest door to the outside, knowing full well that he didn't want to get caught having a rampaging duel inside the school or to even continue fighting.

As William came back into Corey Hall, he reminded himself that he'd have to find a proper way to thank Clark for those spells they were surprisingly useful except for the last one he had tried. William entered his room, and there was Chris carefully working on his homework. He then stared at William when William came through the door. "Holy crap," Chris said, "You look like hell."

William shrugged and shook his head, only now realizing that despite the freezing New England winter weather his robes were soaked through, and he felt like he was about to pass out. "I..." He shrugged, "Just had a fight with Henry and Theodore."

"Wow," Chris replied as he looked at William, "They're still..."

William could only nod, "It's only gotten worse since Nick doesn't talk to me, and we don't have a lot of classes together." William shook his head as he disrobed and changed into a fresh set of clothing, "If only there was some way we could actually convince Nick that we were there for him."

Chris smiled, "Well, ya know, I've been thinking about that recently."

William looked at Chris when he said those words. There was a gleam to his roommate's eyes, and a wicked smile on his face that made William uneasy. "What are you thinking?" William asked finally.

"Well, what if we you know," Chris said after a few moments, "Met up with him on the full moon?"

"No," William said, shaking his head, he wasn't sure how to explain that he had tried that already, he then just looked at Chris, his roommate didn't seem disheartened by the no.

"Oh come on," Chris replied, "With the Wolfsbane potion he's still Nick in there, but being there would show that we actually cared."

William took a deep breath and then said, "I've already tried."

Chris let out a loud, 'pfft', "So? Try and try again is what my dad always says." Chris gave a wicked smile, "Come on William, what's the worst that could happen?"

William shook his head, "Do I have to answer that, really?"

"No, but come on, with all the stories about the Howling Hall among the older students, we know that he's in those tunnels. We just need someone to show us a way in," Chris explained.

William nodded, "I know of one entrance, and I think Alexandria knows of a few others." William explained.

"Awesome," Chris said, "So on the next full moon, we head out, deal?"

William took a deep breath, "I'm sure I'll regret this, but yeah, deal."


	15. In the Woods Again

A month later and William found himself marching through the thick snow and underbrush out in the woods, trudging along next to him was his roommate. The land was lit up by the full moon high above them, and they didn't even bother to light their wands as they marched through the forest around the campus of Salem.

"Are you sure she said it was out here?" Chris asked as he let out another few puffs of steamy breath.

"Yes," William replied, "She said this is the entrance that they use the least, so it'll probably be the best place to start."

"Why?" Chris asked as they stepped over another fallen log.

"Because, the school knows people go down there, so they're going to put him in an area that people don't usually go," William explained, he then frowned as they continued walking, "At least I hope so."

After another ten or fifteen minutes of walking they came upon the large rock next to the school wall that Alexandria had mentioned. William walked up to it while Chris murmured, "_Lumos_," and his wand light carefully shone onto the smooth stone.

William carefully probed the rock under the light of Chris' wand, before smiling finding the etching into the side of the rock. As William carefully moved his wand around it like Alexandria had instructed him, William asked, "What do you think these tunnels were used for?"

The rock moved aside with a smooth fluidity that only magic could provide revealing a smooth down slope leading only into darkness. William now lit his wand as he and Chris journeyed into the school tunnels. As they walked Chris said, "I always figured they were used by the native wizards or something."

"Maybe," William answered as they began to move through the tunnels, he then asked, "What about goblins?"

Chris shrugged in the dim light, "I guess it could've been goblins, isn't there something about Wizards using tunnels in the Great Goblin Contract?"

William shook his head, "I don't really remember, but I know the school predates the revolution."

"Right," Chris said as they began to prowl the corridors of the tunnels.

As they moved William dropped a bit of a specially prepared potion onto the ground, it left a bit of fluorescent liquid on the ground that would take several hours to dissolve plenty of time to follow it back with. William could hear a faint noise that might be howling as they moved about the cavern but those first few nights they found nothing, and by the second night they were out of the potion and so they called off their search for another twenty eight days.

William was quickly finding that twenty eight days was a long time to wait as he was sitting high up in the stadium next to Sarah. William was wrapped up in the old black cloak, he had tried hemming it with an enchantment but found that he either wasn't very good with the spell or that the cloak wasn't going to be hemmed. Sarah was standing up shouting as Franklin Perry flew into a dive, the opposing seeker came in after him.

For a brief moment the stadium was on its feet as Franklin pulled up and so did the other seeker. William squinted trying to see if the pair of seekers were actually close to catching the snitch. William couldn't spot anything however, and then gasped as a bludger came crashing down into the opposing seeker's shoulder. Franklin flew into a steep ascent as the opposing seeker quickly dove downward, the referee threw out a cushioning spell and the opposing seeker hit the ground comfortably. William watched as Franklin and one of Salem's Beaters high fived above the stands.

Sarah sat down and cheered, "That was amazing!"

"Is the other seeker going to be ok?" William asked.

"Of course, it's probably just dislocated," Sarah explained, "Any competent healer can probably have him back in before the game is even over."

"Wow," William answered as he continued to watch the game.

After another few minutes, Alexandria's voice broke his concentration, "Have I missed anything?" She then sat down on William's other side.

Sarah called over William's head, "Only a really cool play where the other seeker got a bludger to the shoulder."

Alexandria frowned, "What a shame." Sarah ignored the comment as she got to her feet watching the chasers close in on the hoops. The crowd quickly broke in to song as the chasers approached the goal posts. Alexandria tapped William on the shoulder, and he turned to her, "William, where did you get this cloak?"

William frowned, no one had actually ever questioned how he had obtained the piece of clothing as it did not look that out of the ordinary. "Uh, it's a little complicated," William answered, the crowd burst into applause and cheering as the opposing keeper dove toward the wrong goal post and Salem scored.

"It's just not what I would...expect you to wear that's all," Alexandria explained.

"Why?" William responded in a confused voice.

As the crowd cheered around them, William caught a blue and black blur that was without a doubt Franklin Perry after the snitch, and Alexandria leaned in and half-shouted into his ear, "I'll explain later." William nodded in confirmation, watching as Franklin Perry reached out his arm and by squinting William could just make out the snitch ahead of the older boy.

The game drew to a close as Franklin's hand crashed down around the snitch. The crowd was cheering and singing, while William motioned to Sarah that he was leaving. Sarah nodded in assent, though she frowned as Alexandria quietly followed William out of the stadium.

Once they were walking out of the large stadium, where people high above them were still singing, Alexandria spoke, "So where did you get the cloak?"

William frowned, still unsure of what the deal with the cloak was, "Do you know that old outbuilding on the far side of campus?"

Alexandria shook her head, "There are a few out there, but I've never been to any of them."

"It's like a small cottage," William explained as they walked across the still snow covered fields of Salem. Alexandria shrugged, and William continued, "That's where I found it, I was out there walking around late one night and it started to snow so..." He shrugged and Alexandria only nodded. "What's wrong with it?" William asked, his voice slowly filling with frustration.

Alexandria giggled, "There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that you never struck me as a military man."

"Huh?" William responded and stopped walking.

Alexandria stopped and reached across to his cloak, her fingers running over the symbols on his chest, "My father has a few of these cloaks, a couple are even hanging around the house." She ran her finger around the top most symbol, "They're from the Revolution and the symbols indicate state, group, and rank. New Hampshire," her fingers glided over the second symbol, "Scouts," and finally she rested over the last symbol, "Lieutenant."

"Really?" William asked.

Alexandria took a step back and nodded, as she began to walk again she spoke, "Yes, really. Most people won't recognize them if you're worried about it. I just found it interesting that you would be wearing it."

William nodded as he fell into step with her, "It's not that weird, is it?"

Alexandria shrugged, "I've seen people wear them before, normally they're old family heirlooms or something." William sighed and Alexandria turned her head to look at him.

Looking back at her he suddenly found himself having to explain, "It just seems like every day I'm learning hundreds of new things about the magical world, and I've already been a wizard for nearly two years."

Alexandria laughed, "Don't worry, it's not like anyone holds it against you. Plenty of people are born into muggle families and go on to be major parts of the magical world. At least half of congress is muggle-born."

"Really?" William asked, trying to hide the astonishment in his voice.

Alexandria smiled, "I thought if you knew anything it'd be that most of the country's citizens live mixed lives between our world and the muggle world."

William sighed and said, "It never seems that way."

Alexandria shrugged, "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Anyway I have to get going, have to start working on a paper. I'll talk to you later, William."

William nodded and watched as Alexandria stalked across the snow-covered campus.

A week or two later, William was clambering down into the dark tunnels with Chris jumping down after him. "_Lumos_," Chris muttered as he landed with a small stumble, William followed suit as the pair began to walk through the old caverns underneath the school.

"So I was starting to think," Chris said as they walked quietly through the dark tunnel.

"About what?" William responded, whispering a spell under his breath to dismiss a bundle of cobwebs in the hall ahead of them.

"Well, what if they're not hiding him down here?" Chris asked as they passed through a small room-sized cavern. Their wand light revealed a number of empty fire whiskey bottles, as well as a few crushed cans that they recognized as Muggle beer as they passed.

"I don't know where else they could hold him on campus," William said, pausing to stare down at the empty beer cans. "Where do you think they get the beer?" William asked.

Chris shrugged, "I don't know, I don't think we're near any muggle towns. Maybe they get it by owl somehow?"

William shrugged as they continued their way through the cavern, turning down one of the tunnels leading out of the cavern. "Anyway," William said picking up where they had left off, "We checked the outbuildings last night, they're not keeping him in any of those."

"Yeah," Chris responded with a shudder, remembering the couple they had come across in a small building last night. "Why do you think the school has so many outbuildings?" Chris found himself asking as they walked through another room like cavern also littered with various alcoholic bottles, as well as an old musty couch.

"I don't know," William responded, looking at the couch and wondering how it got down here in the first place, "I think some of them used to be old dormitories, and maybe houses for teachers?"

"That makes sense," Chris said as they walked down another dark tunnel. But then he paused, "Do you hear that?"

William stopped and cocked his head trying to hear what Chris might be possibly listening to. Hoping to hear a distinct howl, William was confused as he thought he heard music. William carefully began to tread forward as he listened carefully, Chris followed behind him.

As they traversed down the tunnel, the pair of boys turned out their wand light as they could see a faint glowing up around the corner. They rounded the corner carefully and quietly only to be surprised to find a larger cavern ahead of them, though this one was filled with several warm fires, and a few dozen upperclassmen.

Most of the older students were dancing to music being pumped out of a radio on one side of the large cavern turned dance hall. Chris and William stood there a little shocked, and it was only then that William remembered that it was Saturday night. An older student stopped and stared at them, "Uh, what are you doing here?"

William was unsure what to say, werewolf hunting definitely wouldn't have provoked the right reaction. Luckily however Chris said, "Just passing through, man."

The older student laughed and said, "You should probably just go back the way you came, only way out of this place is back into the school."

"Oh," Chris answered as he began to back away, "Guess we'll be going then."

William followed Chris' lead as they backed away, the older student just stared at them, then muttered to himself, "Underclassmen just keep getting weirder," as he returned to the party.

As William and Chris marched around the tunnels all they found were more caves with empty liquor bottles and a few older students seeking privacy. The night came to a close as they clambered back out of the caverns, and quietly marched through the snow back to Corey Hall.

"Maybe next month," William said as they entered back through the door they had propped open, cautiously creeping through the dormitory halls.

"Hopefully," Chris said as they arrived at their dorm room and carefully unlocked it. Chris then got ready for bed, falling into a swift and fitful sleep.

William on the other hand sat up for a while wondering if there would ever be a better way to find Nick, or just a special way to show him that they still cared about him.

The snow was still clinging to the ground a few weeks later as March was quickly becoming April. On the first cold day of April rain, William was rushing across campus after waking up late for class. With the next full moon not too far away, William was once more back into the flurry of preparing for his continued search for Nick's monthly hide-a-way. As he ran through the rain and watched it slowly melt and mingle with the snow, William realized he had never been so happy to see it rain. Of course, the rain also made the old campus brick walkways slick as he nearly slammed face first into the brick steps into the school.

William was able to plant out his foot quickly and catch himself before bounding into the doors. William rushed through the halls, long cloak billowing behind him as he rounded the corners and rushed up the steps before bursting into McAllister's charms class right as the bell began to sound. McAllister glared at William as he came in barely before the bell, William only nodded at his professor before quietly walking up to his usual spot. William could feel McAllister's glare on his back the entire way to his seat. As William began to shrug off his cloak and realized how wet it was he realized why. Before sitting down or even removing his cloak, William took at his wand and tried his hand at a drying spell they had been taught several classes ago. After a moment steam rose up from Williams cloak and he sat down, staring back at McAllister trying to not let it show how surprised he was it had worked. The old man only grimaced and began his lesson with his usual lack of enthusiasm.

The day continued in that fashion and William was happy as the school day ended though he frowned as he stepped out into cold beating rain of April and began his sullen march to the library. William paused as he made his way down a path and spotted Theodore and Henry walking away from the library. Their bullying over the past few months had been intermittent, some days William didn't see them, others they were throwing spells at his back several times a day. But whenever he met them with a direct confrontation the chances of a fight starting were a given.

Both boys stopped several yards from William. The rain came down and the wind howled as William felt his wand hand twitch ready to grip his wand and throw back his cloak at a moment's notice. Theodore and Henry were also standing tense, waiting for the right moment to begin their assault. Theodore sneered at William and as always he whipped out his long thin wand first, and let out a cackling noise.

William grimaced as he pulled his wand and cast a shield charm in one fluid motion, there was always something that bothered him about the way Theodore cast any spell. No matter what, Theodore always sounded like he was doing something dark. William was ready for the purple nurple that came spiraling from Henry's stubby wand and blocked it once again. However, Theodore's spell was already coming at him and William quickly found himself on the defensive. On either side of the walkway were muddy patches of grass and slush, which would only slow him down, William realized. As William found himself backing up slightly with each blast, he found himself frowning all he had wanted to do was finishing writing a paper, he didn't have time for this.

William bit his lip as he dropped his shield after Theodore's next attack, letting Henry's random jinx hit him square on. William then let loose one of the spells Clark had given him that he had been practicing for several weeks. "_Tagann!_" William shouted with his wand firmly pointed at Theodore, a bright bolt of green energy hit the boy and William yanked his wand hard to his right where Henry stood. Theodore went slamming into the larger boy and they fell straight over into the mud. William not caring about their reaction ran past them on his way to the library. He heard Henry get up and yell something at his retreating back, but William didn't care.

As he entered the library and took several deep breaths, William carefully made his way back toward the peaceful quiet of the stacks. In the days leading up to the full moon, William always made sure to get as much work done as possible. As he settled down into the stacks, William sighed, he was so tired of the bullying, and the fighting it caused. He began to wonder if other students in the wizarding world had as many problem as he did; bullies, friends that were werewolves, memories of fighting a dark wizard. William shook his head as he wondered if life was any easier in muggle school.

As he stared at his books and began to mentally prepare for writing this History paper, he then shook his head, and pulled out a clean sheet of parchment. Slowly he began to write to Megan O'Rourke. Despite the necessity to keep vague William needed to vent to someone about the constant bullying and she was as good as anyone. Besides, William thought, at least she would be able to confirm if life in a muggle school would be any better. After he finished the letter, William began writing the History essay, and while the letter forced him to stay later in the library William couldn't help but say he felt better as he walked out into the perpetual rain of April. Even with the cool rain pelting down on him, William was ready to once more face the world that he found himself constantly learning about whether he wanted to or not.


	16. The Quidditch Championship!

William was wandering down into the potions lab as he held a letter from Megan O'Rourke. He had only just received it that day but hadn't had the time to read it yet. William smiled, the lab was empty per usual, and he slowly set about preparing to mix another potion for his and Chris' next incursion into the tunnels in the hopes of finding Nick. After setting the ingredients into his cauldron and bringing the mixture to a simmer William opened up the letter.

While hoping to hear great tales of life in a muggle middle school, William was crest fallen to discover that his outpouring of bully complaints only brought him the same in kind from Megan. For the majority of the letter she explained how Eric Grossman, and a few other members of the football team now without the sport to occupy their time had come to picking on the mathletes and other various geeks, as Megan referred to them, as their main hobby. There were a few mentions from Megan about how this consolidated her and her friends closer together, but it mostly detailed how Megan was starting to feel about the harassment. She also explained that she felt if William were there it might be a little easier to deal with, William shook his head upon reading that unsure of whether or not that was actually true. He sighed as he set the letter down and began to stopper his mixture. At least here at Salem he had the capacity to fight back against Henry and Theodore, and the times that they really did get him good were times when they ambushed him. In a muggle school he realized that he would stand no chance against Eric Grossman, even if he did fight back like he did here. William shook his head, he knew many teachers at Salem over looked the hexes and jinxes and outright duels that occurred in the school. William also had started to wonder if they overlooked his plight because he was a member of the dueling team, as he had once seen one or two of the older duelists occasionally get into scuffles in the hallways but those were normally quick and decisive. William sighed as he thought about all of this while staring into his now grimy cauldron.

As he raised his wand to cast the cleaning charm, the door to the lab opened and in stepped Franklin Perry, "Ah, William! I've been looking all over for you."

"Really?" William asked, waving his wand and murmuring the incantation under his breath, "Why?"

"Well, you know the Quidditch championship is this weekend right?" Franklin asked somewhat surprised that he needed to explain this to William.

"Already?" William said surprised, "I thought they were in May or June?"

"No, that's Quodpot, longer season," Franklin said as he sat down across from William at the worktable. "Anyway, I need to talk to you because I'm going to be smuggling your sister in to see the game."

"You're what?" William half-shouted.

Franklin smiled mischievously as he set a package down on the table, "I'm getting her into the game, I even got her a set of school robes so she'll blend in. Thing is, when she gets here, well I have to go down to the locker rooms and everything. So I'm going to need you to help her blend in, alright?"

"This is crazy," William said as he stared at the older boy.

"Just crazy enough to work," Franklin replied in a correcting tone. "Look, I just need you to get her through the game, I'll handle the rest." He then rose up, and said, "Oh, and don't forget to teach her the team's song or else she'll definitely be out of place this weekend."

William shook his head as Franklin walked out the door, humming to himself. After Franklin left, William suddenly found himself resting his head on the work table debating on whether or not to begin to bang his head into it. He then slowly realized that despite hearing it many times, William didn't even know the quidditch team's song.

The next day he sat across from Sarah during lunch and explained the task he had been given. Sarah could only glare back at him, "How do you not know the song?"

William blinked, and then said, "I don't know, but you need to teach it to my sister, the muggle, that Franklin is going to be smuggling in here for the game this weekend."

Sarah grumbled under her breath then said, "Fine, I just can't believe you can go to a quidditch game and not learn the song." Sarah then took a bite out of her sandwich, and then a strange look came over her before she said, "Wait, your sister's a muggle isn't she?"

William then nodded, "Yes."

"How is Perry even getting her here, aren't there anti-apparation wards?" Sarah asked taking another bite.

"I don't know, I remember Tall Elk apparating last year, so did the Marshals," William explained, "Maybe there are loopholes?"

"Might be," Sarah mused, "Still I can't imagine this is going to be easy, how is she going to deal with the muggle-repelling charms."

That's when William explained the Christmas gift Franklin had given her this year, and frowned, "He's been planning this for a while I think."

Sarah smiled, "Well, he probably knew that he'd be leading the team to victory this year." She then smiled wider and asked, "Can you believe we're in the championship match? This is going to be awesome." As Sarah began to day dream and mention her theories on how the game was going to go, William could only shake his head unsure of how he was going to survive this weekend.

The weekend arrived quickly, and William was woken up early on Saturday morning by a knock at his dorm room door. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, William was surprised by a knock at all, and he then opened up the door to find his sister standing there decked out in a set of blue Salem robes with a Salem quidditch scarf wrapped fashionably about her neck. "Hey squirt," Elizabeth said before ruffling his hair.

William tried to bat her hand away but it was far too early in the morning for that, "What are you doing here?"

"Franklin just snuck me in to your school, told me to come here to hang out and wait. He's already getting ready for the game apparently," Elizabeth said with a roll of her eyes and hints of annoyance in her voice. She then stepped into William's dorm room without a moment's hesitation.

William was forced to step back and then close the door behind her, "How'd he even get you in here?"

"I don't know," She responded, "He called it porting or something, you're the wizard." Elizabeth then began to inspect William's desk as she sat down in his chair. She flipped through his papers, and read the spines of his book titles.

"Could you not go through my stuff?" William asked.

Elizabeth shrugged, "Fine."

Chris suddenly shuffled awake, and only nodded at William and his sister as he made his way out to the bathroom, only after opening the door did he pause and do a double take then said sleepily, "You're not Sarah."

"No, I'm not," Elizabeth said with a devilish smile looking at William then back to Chris, "Who's Sarah?"

Chris grumbled, "A quidditch fan." He then walked out of the room.

Elizabeth's eyes were still a light as she turned to William and asked, "Who's Sarah?"

"She's a friend of ours, the only person we know who wears quidditch scarves," William explained not liking what his sister was trying to imply.

"Is she in here a lot?" Elizabeth asked, casually as her eyes began to glance back towards William's desk.

"No," William stated flatly.

"Alright, I'm just teasing you anyway," Elizabeth said defensively, "So when does this whole quidditch thing start?."

William walked to his bed and checked his watch, "Not for another two hours, I need to shower, I'll be back." William then grabbed his bathroom stuff and made his way out of the room, his sister just smiled back at him as he left.

When William arrived in the bathroom, Chris was on his way out looking a tad more awake. He stopped William and asked, "So wait, who's in our room?"

"That's my sister," William answered with a groan, "Franklin smuggled her in here for the Quidditch championship."

"Oh yeah, those are today," Chris replied, "Think they're going to be any good?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, probably?"

Chris nodded, "Yeah, it is Quidditch," He then walked out of the bathroom leaving William to get ready for the day.

William arrived at his room not long later, where his sister was flipping through one of William's school books, Chris was seated at his own desk scribbling down some notes. Elizabeth looked up and said, "They teach you guys really weird stuff here. Chris said you guys don't even have like, English courses."

"No," William responded and then explained, "Just magic."

Chris then looked up at her, "So yeah, that's our Charms textbook, what do you think it's like?"

Elizabeth laughed and explained, "I don't know, most of these books are like all textbooks, boring. You're probably better off telling people you go to some special science school or something."

Chris grumbled, "I guess I was decent at some science stuff."

"Really?" Elizabeth asked, "William was really good with all that junk."

Chris looked at William, "William you never said you were good at like science."

William shrugged, "I figured you always knew I was, I mean Potions and Transfiguration are my best subjects."

"Yeah, but the dueling, I don't know," Chris shrugged at a loss for how to explain what he had thought.

"Oh yeah, will I get to see any of all the dueling I hear you do," Elizabeth asked curiously.

William felt himself get strangely tense at the question, and then said, "I hope not." He frowned as his sister only looked confused, "I mean, there are no dueling club meetings on the weekend and well, if I have to duel someone today it'd only be because well, it's like fighting."

"Oh," Elizabeth said, "So you guys use dueling for both like, fights and sports?"

"Yeah," William said never noticing just how strange it was until his sister had said it.

"Weird," Elizabeth answered.

There was another knock at the door, Chris raised an eyebrow and William answered the door to find Sarah and Alexandria standing there. Sarah was dressed in a manner similar to his sister, blue school robes, and a quidditch scarf, tucked under her arm she had a six pack of bottles and she smiled, "Quidditch Championships!"

Alexandria gave her usual half smile, as she said smoothly, "Good morning William, may we come in?"

William stepped aside as the girls entered, Sarah was particularly bubbly, she then said to Chris, "Are you coming to the game?"

Chris sighed, "I guess I can endure a game of Quidditch if it's the championship."

Sarah let out a whoop as she then said, "Butterbeers all around then! A quodpot fan is going to watch a game of Quidditch!" She then set the six pack down on Chris's desk and handed one around, and then paused as she extended one to Elizabeth, "Oh, hi. Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Elizabeth, William's sister," Elizabeth answered as she accepted the butterbeer, "And you're Sarah?"

Sarah smiled back and said, "Yes, how'd you know?"

"Chris and William mentioned you earlier," Elizabeth explained, taking a sip of her suddenly opened butterbeer to hide what William knew was a smile on his sister's face.

Alexandria extended her hand and provided her usual introduction, "Alexandria Blair, of the New York City Blair's. You wouldn't happen to be Franklin Perry's...friend, would you?"

"Yes," Elizabeth answered, somewhat confused, "How did you know?"

William watched carefully, he knew that Alexandria was a very progressive full blooded witch but she still made occasional remarks that William had no idea how his sister might take. Alexandria just smiled and said, "Oh my family and the Perry's are just friends that's all, my mother wrote me and told me that Franklin was seeing someone unusual these days, that's all."

William watched his sister smile, and say, "Oh alright, I didn't realize that I was that different than," She then closed her mouth and smiled when she caught her younger brother watching the conversation. William had only at that moment noticed that Chris was busily asking Sarah which of his countless school spirit spreading devices would be considered acceptable for the Quidditch final. William also noticed that he was the only one with an unopened butterbeer, he quickly cracked it open and drank the beverage. He had only had butterbeer on a few occasions, and found the drink to be almost too sweet but for some reason perhaps just the sheer awkwardness of this moment he found it quite enjoyable.

Luckily though Sarah quickly thought it was time that everyone learned the song by heart so that they could all sing along during the game. The tune was catchy, and William quickly found that he knew more of the words than he thought he did. Everyone else was also able to catch on to it as well, though Chris had a bit of trouble since he was used to the more chant-like version the quodpot team had adopted in the fall semester. Finally, Sarah was teaching Elizabeth all about the importance of proper scarf-use as they started to make their way to the stadium.

As they walked Alexandria fell into step with William, and said, "I'm very sorry about earlier."

"It's my own fault, I should've been doing something," William responded.

"I know but still I didn't mean to imply anything about your sister or Franklin's relationship or..." She shrugged, "I suppose I'm just being silly that's all."

William just smiled back in response, "It's alright, Alexandria."

As they passed by Nick's dorm room, William paused for the briefest of moments. He wanted to knock on his old friend's door, but quickly found himself only frowning. Alexandria tugged on his arm and said, "I'm sure he's sleeping in, William."

"Right," William answered as they walked out of Corey Hall.

The campus was abuzz with people swinging scarves, singing songs (both the Quidditch team's and several random songs only a few of which William recognized), and people handing out warmed bottles of butterbeer. William also noticed a handful of older students that were slightly inebriated. In fact as they were moving to the stadium, William or more appropriately his sister was greeted with a surprisingly friendly hello from Clark.

Clark had nearly tackled Elizabeth in a hug, and shouted, "Fraser's older sister, hey!"

Elizabeth was somewhat confused until she recognized the curly haired girl who was wrapped around her, "Emily, right?"

"Yeeeup!" Clark said with a broad smile on her face, "What are you doing here, I thought you were," she then whispered into Elizabeth's ear.

"A friend of mine helped me," Elizabeth explained.

"Oo, naughty," Clark responded as they walked into the stadium and began to trudge up the many stairs.

William then found himself surrounded by the various seniors that were traveling with Clark now all singing a drinking tune and passing about flasks. Alexandria had on one of her standard half-smiles, and Sarah didn't quite know what to make of the situation until as the upperclassmen stumbled over the lyrics and paused she started singing the team song and they all joined in. For some reason as William settled into the stadium seat, a few seats down from his sister who was talking with Clark he suddenly felt relaxed. William could take several guesses from the giggles and smiles that his sister and Clark were sharing what the conversation was about but with them just a few seats down in this packed stadium he had no chance of hearing it.

It was at this moment that William suddenly realized just how packed the stadium was for a quidditch game. Every seat was packed in the student section, and there were plenty of alumni, and parents, and general fans cheering throughout the other parts. And the opposite side of the stadium was equally packed with the opposing team's fans, cheering their hearts out. It was at this moment that he recognized the colors of the opposing team, the rich blues and reds of the Academy down in Louisiana. The other side were also singing, though William couldn't understand the words at all.

The standard quidditch announcer who was normally quite subdued was accompanied by the man who normally announced the quodpot matches. The quodpot announcer greeted the stadium, "Goood morning Salem! Are you ready for the Quidditch National Championship!" The whole crowd roared.

The quidditch announcer then spoke, with a tad more enthusiasm then usual, "Today we are met by our friends from Acadienne Académie Magique, who have also traveled the long and fantastic road to this Championship. And now let me present our teams!"

The stadium erupted into cheers as the players from both teams poured out into the air. William saw the Salem mascots soar above his head and marveled as a scarf wall formed in their wake. Suddenly, the majority of the Salem side was holding up scarves and singing the school's song. The stadium quieted as the national anthem was played, and then the captains shook hands, and the balls were released.

What followed over the next three hours William could barely keep up with as one of the most intense games of quidditch he had witnessed occurred. Chasers were zooming up and down the field, constantly performing a variety of maneuvers to trick each other and keepers. The scoreboard was constantly chiming as both sides were scoring left and right throughout the game. Bludgers were flying about regularly bashing into players causing reserves to be called in while others were dealt with by the attendant healers. William was impressed though as even the reserve players kept up their mettle against the opposing team. The only people who William barely saw were the seekers.

William craned his neck and could see them on occasion hovering, every so often they would go zooming off at break neck speeds for the ground or a particular part of the stadium but more often than not they would be circling each other well away from the action. There were no attempts at false moves in this match, with scores so tight whoever captured the snitch was going to come out the winner and nothing could be risked on an attempt to pull a feint.

As the game entered its fourth hour with the teams scores already in the two hundreds William saw Franklin Perry break off from his current seeker circling, like a bullet. The other seeker gained on Franklin by pouring into a steeper descent. As Franklin zoomed in toward the stands, William could barely make out the flittering hint of gold in front of his hand as the snitch soared over the crowd and with it came the seekers. Fans cheered, and others began singing as the seekers buzzed past them after the snitch. William could easily have reached out and touched the seekers from his seat if he had really wanted to that's how close they got.

Suddenly Franklin did a barrel roll into the action of the pitch, while the other seeker made a wider banking turn. And it was that banking turn that cost the Academy the snitch and the match. Franklin's hand had outstretched while he rolled, and his hand clasped onto the snitch at the same time as a bludger crashed into his right hip and a thrown quaffle accidentally hit him hard in the shoulder. Still despite a clearly dislocated hip bone, and probably a bruised shoulder Franklin held up the snitch above his head as the whole Salem side of the stadium got up and started cheering, people broke into various songs as the quidditch team flew into a massive bear hug above the stadium. The Academy side was shouting all variety of expletives and there were many shouts of rage that could be clearly heard across the stadium, but no one on the Salem side cared.

The day then passed in a haze of partying and dancing. William was surprised with how quickly the campus became filled with all manner of delicious foods and sweet desserts. Before William even knew what was going on, there were various student groups playing a variety of instruments that William both recognized and didn't and all manner of music across the campus.

Sarah and Alexandria dragged William and Chris across campus to a variety of the dances. There were various bands playing, and everyone was playing some form of merry upbeat tune that resulted in people swinging partners about and exchanging dance partners on seemingly random occasions. At one point, William remembered, a by this point in the day clearly drunk Clark leading him in a jig across a dance floor that had sprung up in front of the main academic building.

As the day wound down, so did the music, and William found himself in one last dance with Alexandria as they moved about in a traditional wizarding dance in the dining hall. The dance was very subdued, no clapping, or stamping, just people moving about in time with the music. As they danced, Alexandria remarked, "I'm really surprised all of this happened for a quidditch match."

William shrugged as he tried to concentrate on being as graceful as Alexandria was, "It seemed to spring out of nowhere."

"Well I suppose we are out of the Quodpot playoffs," Alexandria stated.

"Really?" William asked.

"I'm surprised you don't know, after all you live with Mr. Quodpot," Alexandria said with a quiet laugh.

William just shrugged, "I guess so." As they continued dancing he then asked, "What makes this a wizarding dance?"

"The fact that wizards dance it," Alexandria responded with her traditional half-smile. "You think far too much about the wizarding world."

William laughed, "I guess, but I don't really...get it."

Alexandria laughed, "I'm amazed that you, a wizard, seem so perturbed by the wizarding world and yet your sister, a muggle, has been able to masquerade as a student here all day."

William frowned as they slowly twirled about, "It's different for her."

"I suppose so," Alexandria assented. As the dance came to a conclusion Alexandria explained, "Look, Sarah and I were talking about perhaps getting together over the summer. She'll probably suggest a quidditch game or something, but if you want to see the wizarding world outside of school activities, maybe you should come, Chris too."

"That's a good idea actually," Willliam said as they bowed the traditional bow of the dance and walked off the dance floor.

"I'll talk to you about it later," Alexandria said as she then walked off to say hello to some people William didn't recognize.

Realizing that most of his friends were gone, William left the party, and stumbled out on to the school grounds. His belly full of good food and drink, voice hoarse from singing, and limbs tired from dancing, William couldn't help but think about what a great day today had been. As he walked home though, he paused and found himself staring up at the waxing moon, quite nearly full. Staring up at that glowing white orb, William realized that there was something distinctly missing from that day: Nick.


	17. The Beast

Several days later, William and Chris waited behind a set of bushes outside of Corey Hall as the sun began to set. There were only a few students around as it was the middle of the dinner rush, everyone was lining up in the dining hall, and so there were only a few students out doing things on campus. William and Chris were waiting carefully for one person, Nick. William had suggested yesterday that the only way they were actually going to encounter him as a werewolf was if they actually followed him to his hide-a-way, and Chris had agreed.

Nick's head was down per usual, and his whole body seemed tucked into itself. He walked slowly but purposefully away from Corey Hall. After he had moved a good distance away, William and Chris slowly started to follow him or more importantly keep him in sight. Nick took a long winding route around campus, slipping into several dormitories and academic buildings before finally heading into the north west corner of the campus woods.

William had never actually made it to this far corner of the woods before, and was somewhat surprised that there was anything out here at all. With the benefit of the previous year's moving through the woods, William and Chris were able to carefully follow Nick without alerting him. William was happy that trees had finally started to bloom again providing shade as they followed Nick almost to the edge of campus.

They paused watching the tall boy as he stopped at an old partially rotted stump. William watched as Nick carefully bent over and ran his fingers down the inside of the stump, and then the stump slowly and silently slid open. Nick then stepped down into the hole and the stump slid back together behind him.

"Think it goes directly into wherever they're keeping him?" Chris asked.

"I don't think so, but we should wait just in case," William responded.

Darkness set across the forest quickly, and the boys quietly stepped up to the old stump. William ran his fingers inside of the old stump, and then found the small etched rune that would open it up. Pressing down upon it the stump gave way and William was surprised to see an actual set of steps carved neatly out of the rock. William crept down the steps carefully, pulling out his wand as he did. Chris followed close behind and as the stump closed behind them, they both carefully lit their wands.

The pair of seventh graders then began to creep along the dark tunnel, William found a number of cobwebs and little of the trash he normally found about in the tunnels. He was surprised, William had become accustomed to the various labels of fire whiskey and other wizarding liquors that piled up in the tunnels.

The other thing he noticed was the eerie quiet which had settled over the tunnels. Normally, even though there was never a lot of ambient noise beneath campus, there was always something scurrying in the distance, water dripping, or occasionally faint music. But at this moment there was nothing in the tunnels. Chris then murmured, which was easily loud enough to be heard in this environment, "We're definitely in the right place."

"Yeah," William whispered back in a barely audible voice, "Other animals avoid werewolves."

William crept forward down the tunnel, and it was after a few hundred feet they heard an anguished scream not far off in the distance. William looked back over his shoulder at his roommate who only nodded in the wandlight as the pair moved forward, wincing as their friend let loose pained screams that filled the ancient tunnels beneath Salem.

After another few minutes of careful walking, William came to something he had never encountered within the tunnels of Salem before: a door. The door was made of thick stone, clearly hewn from the stone of the tunnels itself. William noticed though that it seemed to have no hinges, Chris carefully walked up to it and placed his hand on it. There were various writings carved into the rock that become visible when Chris touched it.

Well, William quickly realized that he thought most of it was writing. There were a few drawings carefully painted upon the walls that he didn't quite understand, and then a number of things written in a language he definitely didn't understand. He tapped his wand against it and then asked, "Do you know what this is?"

"Looks like Gobbledegook to me," Chris responded as he crouched down still running his hand upon it. They heard another scream from beyond the door.

"Yeah, pretty much gibberish," William responded as he ran his wand beneath it.

"No," Chris said, "I mean it's goblin writing. I told you these were goblin made tunnels, or at least parts of them are."

"Oh," William answered, "Right." He then noticed as Chris crouched down and spotted letters he recognized, "Look, English."

Chris then read it aloud, "Command Center of the Eastern Continental Forces." He then ran his wand over some nearby carvings, "I don't recognize these symbols."

William recognized one immediately, "New Hampshire," he said pointing to one which matched the cloak he was currently wearing. "This must be from the Revolution."

Chris nodded, "I guess so," he then stood up, "So how do we actually open it."

William frowned and then raised his wand placed it against the door and said, "_Alohomora_." Then nothing happened. William shrugged as he stood there in front of the door, "It was worth a try."

"Yeah, I guess," Chris said as he then placed his hand upon the door again. The door depressed slightly and then slowly began to grind open. "Oh," Chris said, "I guess it was just locked."

As the door opened, the boys could see into a massive room lit with a number of torches, there were other doors on the far side of the room. However, they couldn't really take in the number of old historical artifacts that certainly littered the room. Sitting upon a raised dais on the far side of the room was a massive wolf-like creature. It suddenly sniffed the air, and rose up from where it had been laying.

William could clearly see the various scars and different fur patches that accompanied the nightly rages of a werewolf. William took a deep breath and then said, "Nick!"

However the werewolf didn't respond, and even at this distance, William could see that the creature that was staring back at him was not Nick. People under the influence of Wolfsbane potion, William knew, were supposed to retain their eyes in wolf form. Instead William saw not the chocolate colored eyes of Nick, but a surprising gold color in the sockets. The Beast let out a deep baying as it leaped off the dais on the far side of the room.

"Holy shit," Chris said, "That isn't Nick."

William could only stand there stunned, after all of his efforts to give it to his friend, and his consistent refusal, William realized, and spoke in a numb voice, "He doesn't take his wolfsbane potion."

The werewolf was quickly closing the gap on the boys, and Chris was trying to grab onto William to get him to run but was having trouble getting the smaller boy to do anything. With nothing else to do Chris shouted, "_Petrificus Totalus!_" At the werewolf, the beast froze, and Chris breathed a sigh of relief.

Chris then grabbed a hold of William and shook him, "Dude, come on, we got to close this door and..."

His voice was cut off by the deep growl that emanated from the slowly moving werewolf. The creature slowly moved back up to its feet, and began to shake like a dog throwing off water. The movement was slow at first but was quickly picking up steam.

William just stood there blinking, terror gripping his body for a brief moment as he saw the beast. William felt a phantom pain in his left leg and he suddenly took a sharp intake of breath as he experienced the pain again. William clutched his leg as the beast suddenly began to slowly walk toward them gaging their reactions. Chris shook William some more and shouted, "William, that's the Beast not Nick we need to do something."

Suddenly the werewolf lunged forward making it's way toward Chris. Chris gulped realizing that this was the end of his life, when suddenly William let out a yell that he didn't recognize and a gout of flame burst from the end of his friend's wand. The flame caused the beast to twist back at the last second and pace back into the room, watching the two seventh graders carefully. "I don't think we can run," William said, "It'll chase us."

"Shit," Chris said for the second time, watching the prowling beast staring back at them with its yellow eyes. "So we should fight it you're saying?"

"Or create a way it can't get to us," William said cautiously, as the beast made another running charge, this time William consciously yelled, "_Tagann_!" The spell hit the werewolf and slammed it hard into the ground. Chris petrified the beast again, and it began to once more slowly try and break the petrification.

"We need to close the door," Chris said as he began to scrabble at the wall where the door had slid into, finding no seams or any way of closing it. He then lit up his wand as he searched the walls nearby for any sign of a switch or rune that would close it.

Slowly the beast rose again, and William now settled into his dueling stance, this time he carefully watched as the beast came at him head on. William took a deep breath and then out a call of, "_Diffindo,_" a blast of light came out and cut the werewolf on the shoulder but the small burst of pain wasn't enough to slow it down. William once more yelled, "_Tagann!_" and sent the beast flying backwards and slammed it into the dais.

"Problem," Chris said suddenly, "There's no switch on this side, I think though it might be on the other side." William then looked at Chris, who then took a deep breath, gave a devilish smirk and said, "Come on man, what's the worst that could happen?"

William wanted to shout a number of things at Chris as the beast once more stood up, and William summoned up another gout of flame to distract it. William then decided that he had no other choice but to submit to Chris's never wavering optimism. "Good point," William lied through his teeth, he then walked in slowly to the cavern bringing another gout of flame out to push back the beast.

Chris slowly followed in behind William, tossing out any jinx he could think of at the werewolf. Slowly he looked around and began grabbing at the walls for anything that might help in closing the door. Meanwhile, William once more raised his wand and this time called out the tripping hex Clark had given him as the werewolf charged at him, when it fell he once more launched it across the room.

"Got it," Chris exclaimed as he smashed his fist down onto the rune etched into the wall. Suddenly though the door closed rapidly, and they could hear a firm click within it. Chris then turned back as William moved closer to him, "I think it automatically closes and locks, there's no way we're going to get out of here."

William nodded and then said, "I think we're going to have to wait it out." The werewolf once more came at them, and another barrage of hexes sent it back with a deep guttural growl.

"How do you plan on doing that," Chris asked.

As William summoned another gout of flame that caused the werewolf to back up, William called back, "Fire I guess." As the creature stood back, pacing around trying to find a way to get at the boys without them hexing it, William said, "Come on we'll put our backs against the door." The boys slowly moved with their backs against the wall to the door's alcove.

Once there, the werewolf charged them, and Chris called forth every hex that came to his mind to drive it back. William tried to ignore the scary sight of a werewolf dancing and laughing in the center of the cavern as he began to summon up as many blue bell flames as he could. Soon the ground around them were covered in waist high blue flames. The werewolf glared at them wary of the fire set up on the ground.

"William, aren't blue bell flames harmless?" Chris asked huddled behind the flames wand in hand.

"I'm hoping it doesn't figure that out," William whispered also crouched behind the flames watching the werewolf. The beast howled and then charged at the boys, William once more summoned a gout of flame and it backed away.

Standing behind the flames, Chris then murmured, "_Engorgio_," which caused the flames to swell and the ends of them turned red and orange dancing around the edges of the blue fire. The werewolf came close to the edge again but then back away scared by the fire, and the hexes that the two boys flung back at it.

Soon the creature was merely standing far back from the magical flames, baying and growling. It quickly resorted to gnawing upon it's own flesh. Whenever this started, Chris and William would throw a variety of hexes at the creature to protect their friend from the beast that was now in control of him. The night passed slowly, and the mixture of the fire and the howling of the beast kept the boys awake.


	18. The Morning After

William was amazed when he heard the beast cry out in pain, and as he checked his pocket watch he realized that the moon would clearly have set by now as the sun should be rising. Chris quietly lowered the flames as they watched the gruesome transformation of the beast back into their friend. Slowly the limp and naked form of Nick came to on the cold stone of the cavern. William dismissed the flames, as Nick lifted his head, and coughed up a mixture of his own flesh and blood onto the ground.

"Nick," William said cautiously.

Nick gripped his head as he slowly stood up, he looked across the room at his two friends standing there. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?" He shouted, rage and concern filling his voice.

"We're here because we wanted to show you that we care," William answered, "We've tried in so many other ways but you, you just..."

"So what, almost getting killed by me is supposed to show me that you care?" Nick sneered as he covered himself and limped over to a pile of his clothing that he had piled in a corner of the room.

"Yes, we were willing to face the beast to show you that," William spat back, "We didn't know what else to do, we've been searching for your hiding place for months now."

"You wouldn't talk to any of us," Chris said quietly, "The most any one ever heard about you was what Alexandria heard through your roommate."

Nick growled, "None of you wanted anything to do with me, anyway."

"What are you talking about?" William shouted, rage that had built up in him over a year pouring out, "I've brewed you illegal potions, I tried to talk to you, I...we...we're here right now."

Nick leaned against a half-broken table as he stood there, and then through a choked voice he said, "I...I..."

William closed the distance between himself and his friend and placed a hand on Nick's shoulder, giving a hard squeeze, "I know."

Nick collapsed down against the half destroyed table turning back to his two friends, "I just didn't...you don't know what people were saying, behind my back, to my face..."

Chris then coughed, "I know what they've been saying Nick."

Nick and William turned to stare at Chris, and Nick asked, "What do you mean?"

Chris then spoke, "People were shouting about you all the time. I've been trying to shut people up all year, Nick. Telling them that you're not a beast, that you're a normal kid. The less you talked to us the harder it got, but I've been trying to stop those rumors." He laughed, "The things I've said about other people just so to cover up what people were saying about you...I got to make some apologies but," Chris then paused, "It was worth it, Nick, you're our friend."

Nick shook his head, "I had no idea."

William squeezed Nick's shoulder and the taller boy looked into William's eyes, "We've been trying, Nick. And we're going to keep trying."

Nick nodded slowly, "Alright." He then coughed again, "Let's get the hell out of here." Nick walked up to the door they entered from, unlocked and opened it.

"What is this place anyway?" Chris asked as they walked down the tunnel, their lights leading the way.

"It was some old Revolutionary War thing," Nick answered, "It was where'd they go if the school ever got invaded, so it was designed to close from the inside and be tough to charge into." He then laughed, "It's also hard to get out of, that's why they put me there."

"Makes sense," Chris replied as they then climbed up the steps and out of the stump entrance into the tunnels.

William walked with his friends through the early morning, the sun shimmering down through the now green leaves of forest. Slowly they made their way into the dining hall, and while plenty of people gave the three a weird stare, Chris and William glared back at everybody while Nick just gave a broad smile. This caused most onlookers to turn away from the three boys.

As they sat down, William suddenly found that it felt like nothing had changed. They were laughing, talking about class assignments, and everything seemed good. After a short while they were joined by Sarah and Alexandria, who both greeted Nick warmly causing him to laugh and smile. It felt good to watch Nick laugh again, it felt extremely good to watch his friend be his friend again. Slowly though Sarah left to go meet up with some Quidditch fans, and Alexandria was off to study.

Chris rose from the table and yawned, "Alright, a whole night without sleep, I'm off to go take a nap, I'll talk to you guys later?" Nick and William waved back at Chris as he walked away.

Nick smiled turning back to William, "You must be tired too, I mean I know I am."

William took a deep breath as he knew there was no other way of how to ask the question, "Why weren't you under the effect of Wolfsbane?"

"What?" Nick said, clearly caught off-guard.

"If you were taking an appropriate dosage of Wolfsbane," William explained, "We shouldn't have encountered the Beast. And if you weren't, why weren't there guards, and how come you go alone?"

Nick's frown cut off William's questioning, he then took his own deep breath and said, "Everyone thinks I take it. I get all I want through a government program, and they monitored me taking it the first time, and then monitored my going to the hall for a few times. Then they stopped, they occasionally will monitor me but mostly I'm on my own."

"Then why did you stop taking the Wolfsbane?" William asked, leaning in to stare into his friend's brown eyes.

Nick squeezed his eyes shut and then sighed, "I don't know, it didn't seem worth it anymore. What was the point, I couldn't hurt anyone in there but myself. And I'm, was..." He gulped and whispered, "Just a werewolf."

William sighed in response and said, "I'm sorry Nick." He had no idea how to respond to what his friend said beyond that.

Nick only nodded and said, "I know, I'm an idiot." Nick then lifted his head up and said, "I'll take it now though." His voice held a strong conviction to it as those words flowed out of him.

William could only look at him and ask, "Why?"

"Because I don't want you idiots barging in on me like that again," Nick responded with a smile that William could only describe as wolfish. Both boys burst into laughter to ease the tension of the reality of everything that had just happened.


	19. The Greatest Idea of All

William was happy as he stood opposite of Nick in the dueling ring as the spring semester came to a close. Clark was officiating as she was graduating and the seventh graders were 'her class', Tall Elk watched with a smile as the two boys saluted and it was on. Nick much like Clark and William favored the relaxed position, and both he and William began to pace around the circle waiting for the other to slip up.

Nick's wrist twitched, and William let loose calling up a shield and shooting out a jinx right after. Of course Nick had thrown out his jinx and called up a shield right afterward. The jinxes rebounded off of the silver light surrounding the two duelists, as William broke into a full run to the right calling any hex that came to his head.

Nick had charged forward, summoning up shields and calling counter-jinxes that slammed into William's spells in mid-air. As Nick pivoted to look over at William, William let loose a flurry of spells at his friend who quickly parried them coming back with his own flurry. The match went on this way with exchanged shots for a solid few minutes, when William decided it was time to try at something a little different. William then realized that Nick hadn't seen his fight at the end of last semester and so called out, "_Expelliarmus!_" The jet of light came crashing into Nick, but as like last semester William just didn't quite have the hang of it and Nick held on to his wand though William saw that his grip was knuckle white.

Nick then whipped his wand about and called out a spell William was unfamiliar with. William just dove away as a number of ropes shot out of Nick's wand and tried to grasp at where William had been standing. William then swung back his wand and yelled, "_Tagann!_" And the blast of emerald light gripped around Nick and William flung his wand hard. Nick tumbled but landed with his shoulder on the ground calling out a spell through pain.

William got to his feet and called out another shield spell which blocked the light of Nick's jinx. Still in the flash Nick was on his feet, and both boy's locked eyes. Suddenly Nick and William yelled their spells at the same time. Nick went flying to the right and William rushed to where Nick had been standing while their wands flew out of their hands. They were both sprawled across the floor, wands clattered on the ground, when Tall Elk shouted, "Finished. The contest has been brought to a draw."

The whole dueling club clapped, as William and Nick stood and saluted before hazily stumbling out of the ring. Next the eighth graders started up but Clark still officiated as Tall Elk stepped up to the two boys. "Gentlemen, I must congratulate you on an impressive duel for boys of your age," He surveyed them both, "I'm also impressed at the resourcefulness of your final spell choices." Tall Elk sat down on the bench between them, "Of course I shouldn't be surprised William that you use spells with a Gaelic-base, especially when I consider how fond Clark is of you. That throwing curse was one of her favorites for a long time." He then turned toward Nick, and smiled, "And to see you use a standard spell of the Marshals is both inspiring and somewhat troubling. But I'm glad that while your illness has caused many troubles for you, that you have been able to draw some strength from it." He then smiled down at the two of them and said, "I cannot wait to see what you bring to the circle next year gentleman. Have a wonderful summer."

"Thank you, Dean Tall Elk," The two boys said in unison. The older man patted them on the shoulders and then rose to watch the rest of the matches. William smiled as it finally seemed like things had returned to normal.

Within a few days of the final dueling club meeting of the year, William was slowly packing up his trunk. Chris had already moved toward the train promising to save a compartment for everyone. William was not surprised when there was a knock on his open door and standing there was Clark, she smiled at William and said, "Hey there, squirt."

"Hello," William responded, "Ready to graduate?"

"You have no idea," Clark said as she stepped into the room and looked around it. She then paused and asked, "Do you guys keep it this clean all the time?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I guess?"

"Boys are so weird," Clark murmured under her breath before turning to look at William, "Anyway, I came here to tell you that I'm pretty proud of you. I don't know what you did but you helped Nick get his head on straight and well, the two times you've sparred this year were pretty impressive." She looked down at William and then said, "I'm excited to see how you do in competition. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around of course."

"What are you doing now that you're graduated?" William asked, unsure of what it was wizards did after high school.

"Well, right now I have an offer from Tall Elk for a good word with the Marshals but I'm not sure I'm cut out for the whole fighting evil wizards thing. I'm planning on continuing to duel, hopefully semi-professionally and beyond that I don't know we'll see where the wind takes me," Clark responded, "I'm sure I'll find something to keep me occupied."

William nodded not quite sure what to make of her statement, "That's good I guess."

Clark laughed and then placed her hands around William, before giving him a hug, "Alright squirt, I wish you the best of luck. Oh and say hi to your sister for me."

"Alright," William said somewhat unsure of what to make of it all as Clark departed.

William soon found himself piling into the train with all of his friends. There was talk of summer plans, apparently Sarah's grandfather had invited them all to a quidditch game at everyone's earliest convenience, and Alexandria also suggested that they could meet up in Dragon's Plaza at some point at least before school letters came out. William smiled, for the first time since becoming a wizard he felt like he was doing what any kid his age would do: making plans with his friends.

As the train came to a halt in the secret platform of the train station, everyone piled out, but as they did Chris grabbed William's arm and said, "Hey hold back for a second, will you?"

William paused and looked at Chris, "What is it?"

"So I have an idea," Chris said, "I started looking into it after we found Nick's hiding place." William looked confused as Chris continued, "So only humans can contract lycanthropy."

"Right," William answered, "What's your point?"

"So if we weren't human, we wouldn't have to worry about Nick being a werewolf," Chris said and before William could ask he explained, "And we can use magic to transfigure ourselves into animals."

"You mean become an Animagi?" William asked, he had run across the term a few times in his transfiguration text and was vaguely familiar with the concept.

"Yes," Chris nearly shouted, "If we were animals we could travel around with Nick no problem. I'm not saying this is something we can do over the next month, but over the next few years, we could probably achieve our first transformation. Come on man." Chris had a huge grin on his face.

William frowned, unsure of how to respond, "I don't know, Chris..."

Chris's smile just grew wider as he said, "Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen?"


End file.
